Lover's Theory
by DessJ
Summary: The Triangular Theory of Love has three components: Intimacy, Passion, and Commitment. Can Sam and Mercedes, two best friends, navigate their way through their own tumultuous situations and disastrous family pasts and come out on top of the lover's theory? *Reupload of an older story. Please read Chapter 1!*
1. READ

Hello! So, many of you won't know about what I'm talking about but if you do, glad to be back on this site with you! A few years ago, I was writing a story on this site called Lover's Theory. I was writing this story from around 2015-2018 but only published for a few months during 2016 and 2017. Essentially, Sam and Mercedes were childhood friends who finally decided to give in to their romantic feelings for one another in high school. After the election (yeah, that one), I went into a serious battle with my mental health and one night during a depressive episode, I took the story down. I've gotten PMs and things of people asking about it. I always regretted it and said to myself that I would reupload the story one day and maybe even continue it. I've come up with more ideas since taking the story down and have begun a few more fics and drabbles I'd like to share. SO, with that being said, I'm officially going to be reuploading all the previous Lover's Theory chapters and (hopefully) upload some new ones as well as (hopefully) uploading some new fics for y'all! I know it's been a few years since Glee ended and the fandom may have lost some of its fire, but if you're someone who read LT and favorited, reviewed, or followed it, I hope you're here reading this and feeling excited! If you're new and/or haven't read LT before, then I'm going to let you know, it's a wild ride. I'm going to be reuploading the chapters in their original unedited versions so if there are some typos, odd details or overall weird things, please excuse me. Things may be a little shaky while I get them together (I lost the description for the story and many of my personal notes on it), but I'll be uploading the chapters over the next couple of days!

Now, without further ado, I want to welcome y'all to the first original chapter of Lover's Theory. Enjoy!


	2. Lover's Theory Chapter 1

Ok guys so this is my first ever fanfic that I'm posting online, and I'm fairly new to this whole writing process so please forgive me if this is uh… bad. I don't know much about anything on this site as far as writing goes so I'll just say that I hope you guys enjoy this.

Disclaimer

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**"Hate On Me' by Jill Scott." Mercedes' smiled flashed brightly as she looked into the eyes of her best friend, Sam Evans.**

"Wow. You must be pretty excited, right? You get to perform THAT song on THAT night. That very important night..." Sam's voice lingered

"My father's aunt's half-brother's son's bar mitzvah." Mercedes looked at Sam blankly before laughing.

"What's so funny?" Sam was confused.

"I'm not going to do that, Sam." Mercedes kept laughing. "And I'm _obviously_ not going to sing that at a bar mitzvah for some guy I barely know."

Sam started to laugh, more out of embarrassment than out of amusement. "I guess you're right." He soon began laughing from amusement with her as Mercedes went to slap her thigh and missed. Like, bad, missed. Way off. She was so off, in fact, that her hand ended up on Sam's instead.

Once she realized this, she quickly retracted her hand from his. "I'm... sorry?" Mercedes felt her face get hot. Even though she never told anyone but Santana, she had the biggest crush on Sam ever since they were kids. Santana was her 2nd best friend (right after Sam, of course). Now, even though she never actually told anyone, pretty much everyone except Sam had found out. The closest she had ever come to actually being in a romantic relationship with Sam was being his romantic interest in last year's play of _West Side Story _since Finn and Rachel both had the flu. Only thing is Rachel "mysteriously recovered" after 2 days with "the flu". And that was that. So she just sits, waiting idly by in hopes that Sam would one day realize what Mercedes has to offer and carry her off into the sunset. Then they would get married. Then they would go on their honeymoon. Then they would do _things. God, I sure would love to do things with him. _She thought. _I'd love to just grab that blonde hair, kiss that full mouth. No. Forget that mouth. I'm going straight for his- _

_"_Mercedes?" Sam brought Mercedes out of her daydream, waving his hand in her face. "Earth to Mercedes. You in there?" He was smiling. It was that same smile that always got to her. He sometimes thought that he just used it against her to show her how magical he was. Well, that, and how good his oral hygiene was.

"Yeah. Sorry. Again." Mercedes chuckled. Sam just stared at her. She just stared right back at him. _This is it. _Sam thought. _If I'm going to ask her out, I have to do it now. _He got up from his seat in the quad and stood in front of her. "Mercedes," He started anxiously. "I know this might seem like it's coming out of nowhere, but I want to ask you something that's been on my mind for the longest time."

Mercedes just smiled and nodded for him to continue.

"Would you, Mercedes Jones, like to g-"

"Hey Cedes! You coming or what? Them new cheers ain't gonna write themselves!" It was Santana. Co-head Cheerleader of the Cheerios with Mercedes.

"Oh crap, yeah. I completely forgot! Let me just get my bags I'll meet you guys at the bleachers. Thanks, Santana." Mercedes scrambled to get her things together to head out toward the football field.

Sam needed to stop her. It would be the end of the day before they saw each other again. As Mercedes got up to go, Sam grabbed her wrist gently. "Mercedes, wait. This thing that I need to ask you, it's really important. You're the _co_-head cheerleader for a reason. Can't Santana stick this one out on her own? Just for few minutes? I promise I won't keep them waiting long."

"Sam I really need to go. We can just meet up after school. Lima Bean? 3:15?"

Sam realized that he wouldn't be able to keep her away from cheerleading today. "Yeah, sure. It's friday, so we don't have practice. You don't have practice, either, right? Maybe we can hang out some this weekend." _Too far Sam, too far. Why would she want to hang out with you this weekend, dude? She has a life outside of you. Then again, she is your best friend. _

"Actually, Sam," Mercedes frowned a bit "I do. Regionals is next week so we're practicing every single day now. But I don't have practice again until 5! And we have lunch break tomorrow, if you want to hang out then. But I have to go now, ok?"

"Alright. 3:15. Be there or be square." Sam chuckled. "Hey I have practice next period. I can walk you out if you'd like."

"And be there before all the other guys?"

"I could help out with your cheers. 1, 2, 3, 4, titans let me hear you roaaar, rahhhhhhhh!" _Dammit Sam. The roar noise? You HAD to make the roar noise, didn't you? _Sam's mouth was open and he was showing his teeth like some dangerous zoo animal, even though Mercedes wasn't sure which one. His hands took the shape of claws, again of an animal was undetermined by Mercedes. "Yeah I know it was bad. Really bad. I know."

Mercedes laughed softly. "Yeah that was pretty horrible. 1." Mercedes pointed her index finger. Promise me you won't do that ever again. 2. I will see you later, because, despite my protests, you've already kept me for an extra 2 minutes." She kissed him on his cheek as she ran towards the field.

Mercedes finally met up with the other Cheerios on the bleachers. "Hey guys. Sorry I'm late. I was talking to Sam."

"Oh, really?" Said Santana. Just talking? You two? None of that underhanded flirting you guys always do? Because you do that. Like a lot." She chucked.

"Yeah, what is up with you two?" Quinn jumped in the conversation. "If you're not making googly eyes at each other you're all over each other or kissing each other's cheeks or something weird and romantic. Actually it's kind of cute you guys should totally keep doing that." All the other girls laughed.

"Ok. No. First of all, nothing is up with us. At least not yet." The cheesiest smile graced Mercedes' face "Before ya'll came over and _interrupted…_" She looked over at Santana, then back at the rest of the girls. "I think he was about to ask me out."

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Ok guys! That's it! I know it probably feels kind of incomplete and that's just because I didn't want this to be too long for a first chapter. Because of this, I just decided to stick mostly with Mercedes and her side of things, and I'll try to focus a little bit more on Sam next. (BTW, I've already gotten a ot of things written down and on my laptop and in my head, I just have to transform all of that stuff into something that others will understand.) Anyways, thanks for reading, hope you guys enjoyed!


	3. Coming Out

Ok everybody. So, this is chapter 2 of Lover's Theory, and I just want to start by saying that I read the reviews from yesterday, and it felt good to know that I have someone out there who likes my stuff, so thanks to everyone, especially Sweetiedee (uh yeah Sweetiedee read my story and left a really good review I literally died), for reading. Also, thanks to those who reviewed, and I hope you enjoy!

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"... you've already kept me an extra two minutes." Mercedes kissed Sam on the cheek and ran towards the field. Sam sat back down on the bench in the quad. So close. I'm always so close. Sam had tried his hardest to show Mercedes how he felt for the past few weeks, but somehow, someone or something always seemed to interrupt. He wasn't going to let that happen today. He was going to meet up with her for coffee, and he was going to do it. Right once they sat down. That way, no one and no thing will even have a second to stop him.

He decided to call home and see how his mother and sister were doing. Stacy had gotten sick with the flu, and his mom stayed home from work to take care of her. After a few seconds of ringing, his mom picked up.

"Hi, sweetheart." Mary's sweet voice answered.

"Hey, mom. How's Stacy?"

"She's ok. She's been asking for you all day." Mary laughed slightly.

Sam smiled at this. "Oh, really? What has she been saying?"

Mary mocked Stacy's nasally flu voice "What time is it? When does Sammy get out of school? Is Sammy out yet?" She laughed again. "It's almost like she's in love with you."

Sam's smile widened. "She's that excited, huh?"

"Yeah, she can't wait to see you today. But I got her to calm down some once I told her you would come right over here once you got out of school."

Sam's smile faltered this time. His sister was finally getting better, and she had been waiting to see him all day. He knew his sister would want to talk to him, but how could he tell her that he blew her off for Mercedes? Stacy had already been telling him that she want to spend more time with him, and he made a promise that he was about to break. "Hey, mom, can you put Stacy on the phone please?"

"Sorry, Sam. No can-do. I just got her to take a nap for the first time in like today. You can talk to her when you get home."

"Yeah….. maybe not. See, I've been trying to ask Mercedes out recently, and-"

Mary gasped over the phone. "Really?" She said in an excited tone. "Sam that's great! What did she say? You know it's about time you two finally got together. Oh, Dwight's gonna be so excited! You HAVE to let me tell him. Don't let him know I told you this, but we've all been betting on when you two would get together and Dwight said you'd graduate high school but I said by your senior year and I was RIGHT. Ha! This is amaz-"

"MOM." Sam shouted into his phone. "She hasn't said anything yet. I haven't had the chance to completely ask her, which is why we're supposed to go on what I hope will be our first date at the Bean today before she goes to cheer practice. But, mom, how can I do that when I promised Stacy that I'd be there to see her today?"

"Ok, first thing," Mary started "Stacy will get over it. You just go with Cedes, and I'll take care of your little sister. Second thing," Mary took a deep breath. "This will not be your first date with Mercedes. Don't interrupt me, now. Just listen. You and Mercedes can go to this coffee shop, and you can even ask her out. But your first date will not. I repeat. Will. Not. Be in a cafe 'round the corner that didn't start out as a first date. It won't be special. Especially not if she has to go right back to cheer practice! Just ask her out today, and when she says yes, you guys enjoy your afternoon and go on a real date some other time. A first date should be romantic. The Lima Bean? Not romantic. I mean seriously, Samuel. They couldn't even do better than some cheesy pun when they named the place."

Sam smiled "I actually really like the name, mom." He saw the other football players walking over to the locker rooms to get ready for practice. "Anyways, I just called to see how you and Stacy were doing. I'll see you later. Love you guys."

"We love you too, Sam. And good luck with Mercedes."

"Thanks." Sam ended the call and gathered his things so that he could go to the locker room.

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"And that, my friends, is why aliens would make a much better sex partner than any human female."

Sam didn't even have to see anyone say it to know it was Puck who was talking. Only Puck would say something crazy like that. Sam walked into the locker room to see all the other guys surrounding Puck. Of course.

"That's the only way men can-" Puck looked up and saw Sam. "Well, look who's back. If it really the all knowing, all powerful Trouty Mouth?" He stood and everyone turned to look at Sam.

Sam stared at the guys with a straight face for some time until a broad smile graced his face. "In the flesh."

Everyone started cheering and hugging Sam. Sam had quit the football team a few months ago because of his grades, and convinced Beiste that he would be back so that she could find an interim quarterback. Sure enough, with help from Mercedes, Sam got his grades up and his spot on the team back. And boy, was he happy to be back.

"It sure as hell took you long enough." Mike started. "But I guess if we all got countless hours alone with Miss Mercedes Jones, Co-Head Cheerleader of the Cheerios, I wouldn't exactly rush my time either." Mike wiggled his eyebrows and all the guys except for Sam agreed.

"It's not like that, guys." Sam looked around at the team before getting serious. "I don't dream of having crazy threesomes or anything like that with her. You know? I kinda just want….. Her." He continued to look at everyone. "I'm meeting up with her today at the Bean right after school. I'm gonna ask her out."

There were a few moments of silence. Finn was the first to speak up. "Wow, Sam. That's actually kinda great."

Blaine, the team manager, followed suit. "Yeah that's amazing. Kurt's been telling me all about how much she likes you. I think it's great that you two are finally gonna take a shot at it.

Sam was once again, confused. "Blaine what are you even talking about? I don't know whether or not she likes me. Sam walked over to Blaine and whispered in the most obvious way. "That's kind of why I'm asking her."

Blaine slowly stepped away from Sam and laughed a little. "Sam, everybody knows that she likes you already. Did everyone except you know it? Because that would be pretty embarrassing." Blaine kept laughing. Sam kept looking… like Sam. Blaine noticed this and cleared his throat, putting a sudden end to his laughing fit. "Yikes. Awkward. I'm gonna walk away now." Blaine averted his gaze and walked away.

"Sam, there's no way you couldn't know that she likes you man. I mean honestly." Finn spoke up.

Sam simply said what he thought about the situation. "There's no way Mercedes shows that she likes me guys. If she just so happens to like me, though, then I'm obviously going to take a shot at it. But she doesn't show it. At all."

"Sorry to break it to you, dude," Here goes Finn again. "But she does it like all the time. She gets all close with you. She hugs you. She kisses your cheek for God's sake."

"Yeah there's actually no other reason that she would act like that around you unless she was like you're sister or something. Believe me. I know what it's like to have a sister that likes you. Mary does it all the time. At first it was kind of cool but… it gets old pretty quick." Puck looked at Sam, realizing he got off track. "But yeah there's not a good reason for why you would've missed that."

"Guys it's not like that with Mercedes!" Sam exclaimed. "She only does that stuff because she actually is like my sister. We grew up together and we're really close. And for the record," He looked over to Finn. "She's always gotten 'all close' with everyone. So that doesn't mean anything." Silence once again. "Ok, look. Let's all just get ready for practice and do whatever." He looked over to Blaine as everyone started changing. "I'm gonna need your help with something."

Blaine just smiled and walked over to Sam before nodding his head.

* * *

All the football team was walking out onto the field just as the Cheerios stepped off. Sam and Blaine walked over to the Cheerios, who had their backs to them.

Santana turned around to get something out of her bag that was on her shoulder as she saw Sam walking towards her out of the corner of her eye.

Mercedes was discussing the plans for Regionals practice since Sue wasn't there today. "Ok and then tomorrow Santana and I are gonna be out here a little earlier we'll be here at about 12 so Quinn if you can be here at about 12:30, 1:00 then everyone else come anytime after that but be here before 2. Sunday is gonna be a long day so if you have any plans-"

"Mercedes," Santana quickly nudged her in the side. "Shut up about that. Trouty Mouth 6 o'clock, make yourself seem like you haven't been fawning over him for the past twenty minutes approaching in 5, 4, 3, 2."

"Hey, Mercedes, can I talk to you for a second?" Sam's modulated voice confirmed Santana's statement. Mercedes turned around to face him. Sam thought that she looked busy, so he let her know that he wasn't in any rush. "It's not important so if you're doing something….."

"Oh, no." Mercedes smiled slightly. "It's nothing Santana can't handle. Right, San?" Mercedes turned to the girl in question, handing her the schedule.

"Yeah, no problem." Santana took the schedule from Mercedes and winked at her.

"Of course I remember the plans. I just don't want to do that thing where we awkwardly stumble around one another anymore. I want to do this and I want to do it for real. I want to hold your hand in public like this." His large hand grabbed her small ones gently. "I want to just be able to look at you. I want to hold you and wrap my arms around you. I want to be able to kiss you. I want to be able to put my arm around you in glee. And when Rachel sings another corny love song to Finn or something like that, I want you to lay your head on my shoulder and sing along." Sam continued to speak, taking Mercedes' breath away with every word. "Now I don't know if we might not ever be able to do all that the way that I want or the way that you want, and I know that if we do get there, it might take awhile because I know you'll probably want to take it slow. But I want to see how far we can get with this because you're my best friend and I know that lots of people tend to start a relationship with their friends or best friends and it ends badly but I don't think that's going to happen to us. We could never stop being friends. I'd miss you too much. So I just want to do this right, and I'm going to walk away now. If you want to do this too, meet me at the Lima Bean at 3:15. I'll be in our booth. I hope to see you there Cedes." He paused and returned her hand to her side. "Because I think this is worth a shot." And with that, Sam began to walk away.

"I don't know where you're going, Sam." Mercedes said softly. She walked over to him. "You thought that you were just going to leave me without letting me say my piece?"

Sam turned to face her and chuckled. "That's why we're meeting later. You're the type of person who usually needs a moment to process things, so I decided to give you another hour."

"I don't need another hour. See you a 3:15." Mercedes started to walk away, but she turned around abruptly. "Oh, and Sam?"

"Yeah Cedes?"

"Be there or be square." She smiled smugly before walking toward the other Cheerios.

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Alright. That's all for now. I have another couple chapters in the making (my writing process is extremely weird) and I might post one today or maybe tomorrow, but I really wanted to get this one out for some reason. With that being said, I want to apologize for any errors or mistakes I might've made because... I don't know I guess I just tend make a lot of mistakes sometimes? Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed! The 'date' will take place in the next chapter and we'll also get to see how everyone else at Mckinley is reacting to Samcedes! I also plan to have some drama sometime in the very near future, so stay tuned!

**2019 A/N**

I hate these little notes I'm making at the beginning and end lol. But we shall continue! Also, I found EVERYTHING I had for the story, from my description, to chapter names, to future plans, allat. I'm going to put everything is the rightest place I can.


	4. Time For A 'Date'

Ok guys. I'm not going to give much of an intro here. Let's just get right to it!

Jeremy 'Jay" Jones- Michael B. Jordan

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This was it. The school day was over and Sam was about to go to the Lima Bean with Mercedes as his date. His date. He couldn't believe it was finally happening. He was a little later than expected because Coach Beiste arrived towards the end of the day and asked to speak to him. But now, he was on his way out of the school parking lot when he saw Mercedes leaned up against the back of her burgundy Jeep Grand Cherokee with her face in her hands. She got out her phone just as Sam pulled up in front of her.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Mercedes jumped, as if Sam scared her. "God, you scared me. I was just about to call you." She held up the phone in her hands. Something's wrong with my car it won't start or something. I don't know. Jay's coming to get me and figure out what's wrong with it."

Jay was one of her older brothers. He was also closest to her in age out of all her siblings and he owned a towing company.

She squinted her eyes from the harsh sun. "Wait a minute." She got off of the car and stood straight, looking directly at Sam. "Why are you still here? We were both supposed to be at the Bean at 3:15. It's 3:20. Why in the hell are you late?" She walked closer to Sam.

"Oh. Yeah. About that. Coach Beiste wanted to talk to me about my spot on the team. I meant to call you before I left but I kind of…..forgot?"

"You didn't forget. You didn't call on purpose hoping that I was late too. Am I correct?" Mercedes crossed her arms.

"Yeah… Yeah you're kinda right about that." Sam whispered.

Mercedes laughed softly. "Come over here and help me, boy."

Sam did as he was told and took off his letterman jacket as Mercedes went into her car and drug out a big box of tools. She had on shorts. And they looked really nice on her. Like really, really nice. She feigned a shocked look "Samuel Evans," She gasped. "Were you looking at my butt?"

Sam's eyes widened. He really thought he had done a better job at hiding that. "Sorry." He said as his cheeks reddened.

"Aww! You're blushing." Mercedes smiled happily as she pinched his cheeks. "And it's ok. I wanted you to look. Now come help me figure out what's wrong with this thing." She continued as she walked over to the hood of her car. "I checked the battery, oil, cables, everything I can think of I can't figure out what's wrong. I even had to change out of my uniform so I wouldn't get it dirty."

He could see that she had changed. She was wearing a dark gray t-shirt and blue denim shorts. Her hair that was usually in a 'pretty pony' as she liked to call it, had been thrown up into a messy bun. She had taken off her cheer shoes and changed into some blue-ish Nikes. This was her out of school unless she was really going out, like on a date or something. Which raised a question in Sam's mind as he re-checked everything she had already checked. "Is this what you would've worn? Like on our 'date' or whatever?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Probably not. I probably would've just worn my uniform. It's not like I actually considered this to be a first date. It's just a coffee date. Even though it's our first coffee date as a sort of couple, it's still just a coffee date. Not first-date material."

Sam had finished checking the basic things of the car. There were a couple of things Mercedes missed, but he still couldn't find anything wrong. He walked to the driver's side and got in. He then tried to start the car. "Has your engine light been on at all?" He looked over to Mercedes.

She shook her head. "Why? Should it have been on?"

Sam kept trying to turn on the car. "Well, your battery is good. Oil, cables, starter drive, everything looks good except for this." He motioned for her to stand next to him and pointed to the tachometer on the dashboard. "Watch that." He proceeded to turn the ignition key. "You see that? When you first crank your car up, that hand is supposed to reach at least like 100 or something, which you wouldn't really be able to see. Unfortunately, your hand isn't moving at all. Which means that it's probably your crankshaft position sensor."

"My cranksitting what now?"

Sam snickered. "I'm sorry." He cleared his throat. "You're crankshaft position sensor. It's the thing that sends out the signal that tells you what this is right here." He pointed to the tachometer again. "Basically if it turns but doesn't spark, your engine might not start. Now, I'm no expert on cars or anything but that probably should've made your check engine light come on earlier, but I'm not exactly sure how Jeeps work. Anyways, you'll probably need to replace it.

"Um. Ok. Thanks Sam. I guess now we just have to wait on my brother."

"Yeah where is he?"

Mercedes shrugged again. "I don't know, but we might have to cancel our 'date'. I have to be back here at 5." Mercedes looked at her watch. "And it's 4 o'clock. If I wait for him, I probably won't be able to go do sort-of-couple stuff with you. Would you be okay with that? I know you really wanted this." She looked up at Sam.

Sam stood there for a minute trying to think of something. If they didn't do this now, they wouldn't have any time to date outside of school for the next week at least, and he just couldn't wait that long. "How about this?" Sam closed the hood of the car. "It's 4, right? It would take 10 minutes round trip, and you have to be here 5-10 minutes before 5. If we leave now, that gives us a good 35 minutes to do 'sort-of-couple' stuff. You can text your brother and let him know. That way, we don't have to wait around for him to get here and we can leave."

Mercedes kept looking up at Sam like she was actually thinking about it.

"It's not like anyone can steal your car." Sam started to laugh a little. His laugh grew to a loud, boisterous laugh at the thought of someone actually trying to steal a car with a broken crankshaft position sensor.

"Sam it's honestly not that funny. I know what you're thinking, and unless I'm some kind of grease monkey, I'm not going to laugh." Mercedes put her hands on her hips.

"Come on, Mercedes. Just text your brother and we can get out of here. If you want, I can take you to the arcade or something if you don't want coffee." Sam pleaded.

Mercedes sighed and got out her phone. "Fine. But take me for coffee. I don't want to get all hot and sweaty before getting all hot and sweaty again. I'll text Jay, just have me back here by 10 'til."

"Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you." He swung his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly, slightly lifting her off the ground before she started swatting at him and yelling for him to put her down.

"Sorry about that." Sam put Mercedes down and laughed.

"Yeah. Whatever. Just get us to the coffee shop."

Sam opened the door to his truck so that Mercedes could get in, and closed it once she was in. He walked to the driver's side got in, started the engine, and began to leave the parking lot.

Mercedes and Sam were talking, but Mercedes was confused. They were a sort-of-couple. Why were they still talking like they were just best friends? Is this how it would always be? What if they went on this 'date' and he changed his mind before they even got a chance to think about an actual date?

"Calm down Cedes." Sam said, interrupting Mercedes' thoughts. 'I know it feels a little weird, but we'll get over it. It's just a little bridge we have to cross. Stop being so pessimistic.

Mercedes smiled shyly. Sam was really good at reading her sometimes. He could just look at her and tell her whether or not there was something on her mind. "I'm sorry. It just feels like we've been best friends for so long that we can't even be a sort-of-couple without making it weird. I really like you Sam. I have for a long time, really. But I just don't know how we're supposed to turn this into something more if this is the best that we can do." Her distraught eyes looked over to him.

"Mercedes we just brought this whole sort-of-couple thing into existence. Literally, it was like," Sam paused for a second. "Like two hours ago. We can't rush anything." Sam could see that Mercedes had calmed down some, but still wasn't calm enough. "Look. I told you. We can take this as slow as you want. I said that for two reasons. One being I know that you like rushing into things, like you're trying to do now. 2 was because I knew this would be difficult to get through at first. Like right now, I want to kiss you, but I know I shouldn't because then we would get to the confusing part where most friends get and then it becomes awkward and we slowly drift apart until one of us starts to date someone else and we both just end up getting hurt. Then we would've let what could've been a really good thing go. We just need to acknowledge that this is happening and find our own way to settle into to it. We'll be fine. We just have to ease ourselves into it. I promise." He reached over and grabbed her hand that was in her lap.

Mercedes had calmed down enough to breathe again. "Ok. I'll try that. It's just I feel like we should be able to skip the awkward part. That rather than being a sort-of-couple, we should just be a couple-couple. We both already really like each other. So if you want to kiss me, kiss me. I don't need a fancy first date. If you want this to be a first date, then let's do it. You were gonna pay for my coffee anyways." She chuckled and sighed. "Let's just do this, Sam. I just want to do this with you. I just want to be in a relationship with you."

"Mercedes did you just flip the script on me?" Sam came to a stoplight and used the time to look over to Mercedes, who was smiling back at him. "I thought you didn't want to rush things."

"No," Mercedes shook her head, still smiling. "I didn't want this whole awkward part. I think it's completely unnecessary."

"Ok then. I guess if this is what you want. But don't get mad at me when I serenade you in glee on monday. Because that's coming. I'm going to embarrass you like you've never been embarrassed before." Sam turned into the Lima Bean parking lot.

"Oh, please." Mercedes rolled her eyes playfully. "You could never embarrass me more than I could embarrass you. I've still got that picture."

Sam parked his truck and looked at Mercedes. "What picture?" Mercedes looked at Sam expectantly before giving him a clever smile. Sam figured it out. "Mercedes. NO."

Mercedes laughed heartily, her laugh filled the whole vehicle and Sam had no doubt that passersby could hear her. "Yes, Sam. Very much yes." She continued to roar with laughter.

"I thought you said you got rid of it! That you burned it or something?!"

Mercedes sides were starting to hurt. "Sam why in the hell would I do that? That picture is priceless."

"Mercedes you will never share that picture with anyone. ANYONE." Sam's cheeks were red hot.

"Oh. Sorry about that. I already showed it to Santana." Tears started rolling down Mercedes' cheeks. If you ask Sam, she was finding this way too funny. Mercedes turned her phone around so that Sam could see the screen.

There it was: A picture of a 14 year old Sam. In a bikini.

"Alright. We're not talking about this anymore." Sam yanked Mercedes' phone out of her hand.

Mercedes gasped. "Hey! Give that back!" She laughed again at the thought of the picture.

"And you're still laughing?" Sam shook his head. "You're not getting this back until you stop laughing."

"Ok. You can keep it." She was still laughing.

The couple had finally gotten into the coffee shop. Sam got a regular cup of coffee. Mercedes got "whatever you have that has the most caffeine in it". They went to their favorite booth that was beside the wall in the middle of all the other booths.

"Ok." Mercedes started the conversation as soon as they sat down. "So we're going to be a couple-couple. Right now. How do you want to do that?

"Mercedes." Sam said sternly.

"Ok, ok. I'm sorry. Let's just.." Mercedes thought for a second. "Hold hands. Can we do that?"

"I'd be okay with that." Sam reached across the table and brought Mercedes' hands in the middle of both of them. "You know, before the guys told me in the locker room earlier, I had no idea that you liked me back."

"Wait, really?" Mercedes tilted her head a little. "I thought you would've known. I feel like I've always been horrible at hiding my feelings for you. It's not easy, you know. Being around someone all the time and not being able to tell them how you really feel."

"Did you forget that I know exactly how that feels because I've done the exact same thing for about 10 years now." Sam watched as his hands held hers on the table. "And you're right. It's not easy. Not even my exams have ever been that hard."

Mercedes laughed. "You're right. But I'm pretty sure I've got one more year on you though. I have much more mature in the relationship department. I am older than you, after all."

"By three months." Sam replied quickly.

"Three months that make me older than you!" Mercedes replied even quicker.

They kept talking and laughing until it was time to leave. It was just like before, except all feelings were out in the open, and it made both of them feel a lot better about the situation. Sam drove them back to the school, and Jay was there waiting on them. He had his back turned to them and was closer to the building, so he couldn't actually see or hear them. Sam took this time to talk to Mercedes again.

"Thanks for doing this again. I'm really glad you said yes."

"Well I'm glad you asked." She held Sam's hand and moved to the middle seat in the truck so that she could be closer to him. "You know, Sam, this whole day has been pretty surreal to me." She looked down. "Honestly, I never thought n a million years that we would actually be thinking about a relationship for us. A romantic relationship."

Sam smiled and lifted her head up and went in to kiss her. Just as their lips were about to touch, Mercedes pulled away. "I'm sorry Sam. I just don't know if I can do that. I know what I said earlier, but I still want to build up to it. You know what I mean? I want to skip that awkward part but I still want romance. I don't want to skip right to the heavy petting and all that yet."

"Well, Mercedes, heavy petting is pretty far from kissing, but I guess I know what you're saying. Can I at least show you some type of affection besides kissing your hands?"

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah. But nothing too forward, alright?"

"Alright. Nothing too forward. Got it." Sam gently leaned toward her and kissed her forehead. He then wrapped an arm around her. He breathed and he smelled her hair. She had let it down from the bun it was in and it smelled like roses and strawberries all at once. "I'll go open your door for you." He opened his door to get out, but felt a hand on his arm. Mercedes was smiling again. It was that beautiful smile in which she showed her top row of teeth, but not too much. It was the perfect smile.

"Don't worry. I got it." Mercedes leaned over and gave Sam another kiss on the cheek. It was similar to the one she had given him earlier, but Sam felt something... something... different. He felt something different in it this time. He didn't know what it was, but he liked it.

Mercedes got out of the truck and went to go find her brother. She didn't have to go far. As soon as she passed her car, she heard his voice.

"So, little sis. Tell me." He walked up behind her. "When did that happen?"

* * *

That's chapter 3. I decided to wait a another chapter or so to start with the other students at Mckinley. Also, you guys should know, I'm no car expert. Really. My dad gave me the information I needed just to write this. I know it probably didn't make any sense. About this 'kiss'. I didn't really know if you guys thought it would be too sudden for them to actually kiss, so I'm going to hold off on that as well. Anyways, just tell me what you guys think! I'm excited to hear about how you guys feel bout this whole thing. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!


	5. Kisses and Problems

Monday morning. Mercedes' house. The 'date' has come and gone, and Samcedes has spent all the weekend together because Regionals has been postponed.

Amara Jones- Saniyya Sidney

Anaya Jones- Faithe Herman

"Ok. Finished." Mercedes closed her laptop. She had just finished a writing assignment that was due in first period today. She packed up her things so that she could go ahead and put everything in her car before she had to leave.

Mornings in general were a bit crazed for the Jones household. But Monday mornings? Complete chaos. As soon as Mercedes got downstairs, she was almost knocked over by her little sisters, Amara and Anaya. And, as much as Mercedes loved being a big sister, it's times like this she wishes she was the youngest.

"Girls, girls, what's up with the running?" Jeremy stepped into the living room smiling brightly.

The girls ran to Jay and screamed his name as they jumped into his arms.

Mercedes rolled her eyes. This was what Jay did every morning. He would come to the house from his place for breakfast and dinner. Everyday he came, Mercedes decided to tease him. "You know Jay, as much as you come over here, you'd think you want to move back in."

"Don't mock me, little sis." Jeremy smiled as he walked over to her and took her things out of her hands. "I used to be all popular like you." He followed her outside to put everything in her car. "I was quarterback of the football team. One of the best damn point guards the Titans ever had. All the ladies loved me. I was the cat's meow in high school."

"Let me ask you something, Jay." Mercedes waited until he was done putting her stuff in her car. "Why would I give a damn what your high school life was like? I mean, really? I'm not gonna end up owning a towing company."

"Just let me finish." Jay walked over to the bench that was in the front yard and sat down. Mercedes followed him and he started talking again once she sat down. "Our high school lives are almost symmetrical at this point. I was on the most important sports teams, I had a lot of money, I had a nice car, and I had a girlfriend who was head cheerleader. I also had big dreams of getting out of here. Going to Cali, or going to New York just like Kel and Ada, you know?" Kellan and Ada were her eldest brother and sister. Kellan left Lima and went to NYU and earned his M.B.A., whereas Ada was currently working on her B.F.A. at Tisch. "They went out and did all these big things and I'm still here in little old Lima. I don't want that for you, sis. You're better than that. So much better. I mean damn, girl. Have you heard yourself sing before? You are amazing." Jay chuckled as he looked at his sister.

"Yeah, I know." Mercedes flipped her hair and laughed. "But I'm not you, Jay. I know not to make stupid mistakes."

"Promise me, Mercedes. Promise me that you won't make the same mistakes I did. You don't want mom and dad to look at you the way they look at me." Jay grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes, his expression becoming serious. "I might look like I just brush it off, but it's a lot harder than you might think.

"Of course. I promise. But why did you feel you had to bring it up? Right now, at least?"

"Because I know what a teenage boy is. And I know what happens when a teenage boy and a teenage girl who like each other come together." Jeremy looked at his little sister.

"What?" Mercedes was shocked. Did her brother really think that this was the right time to bring up sex? "Jay, we just started dating. I mean 3 days ago. You were literally the first person who saw us doing anything besides holding hands. Besides, I'm not having sex with Sam anytime soon." She looked away from Jay.

"Yeah, right." Jay snickered.

"Jay, I'm serious. I don't think that Sam and I are gonna have sex for a while. If ever." Mercedes looked at Jay briefly before directing her gaze back to the freshly cut grass.

"Wait. You're kidding, right?" Jeremy looked at his little sister, whose eyes widened as she just shook her head. "But why? You're not a virgin."

"How do you know that?"

"Don't worry about me. What's the problem? Sam's a teenage jock. There's no way he's a virgin. He's not a virgin right?"

"He's not."

"Then I don't get it."

"I don't think he wants to." Mercedes got up to go into the house.

Jeremy followed suit. "Sorry to break it to you, sis. But there probably aren't a lot of guys at that school who don't want to. You've got curves. Just about every guy wants a girl with curves."

Mercedes stopped short of entering the house "Ok. First of all, ew. Second of all, I don't necessarily mean that he doesn't want to." She opened the door and walked in.

"Then what do you mean? Look, Cedes you've gotta be more specific about this 'cause I have no idea what you're trying to say here and it's kind of frustrating me a little bit."

"Just forget it. I've got to get out of here. I'm picking Sam up and we're going to go eat breakfast somewhere cheap." She turned around and face Jeremy. "Like a real couple." She went to the fridge and got out a bottle of orange juice. She looked around and noticed that she hadn't seen her parents all morning. "Where's mom and dad?"

"Oh, yeah. They told me to tell you. Dad had to leave early he has a patient and mom had some 'business' to take care of."

"'Business?'" Mercedes frowned.

"I don't know." Jeremy took an apple off of the table beside him and bit into it.

"Ok, so what about them?" Mercedes pointed to her little sisters in the dining room.

"You know what little sis you are so good at reminding me of things." Jeremy smiled. "Mom also told me that you need to take them to school today." He walked towards the bathroom with Mercedes on his heels.

"No, Jay. I can't do that! I'm supposed to be eating with Sam, remember?"

"Please, you were only going to get McDonald's or something anyways." Jeremy walked into the bathroom, where he shut and locked the door.

"Fine. Forget it. I'll just tell Sam never mind." Mercedes huffed. She got out her phone and began to text Sam.

Hey. No breakfast today. Sorry. Have to take A&A to school. Maybe some other time? -Mercy

"Dammit. Ok! Fine. I'm done torturing you." Jeremy unlocked the door and stepped out of the bathroom. "You're welcome."

Mercedes rolled her eyes and walked away. "Asshole."

Jeremy caught up to his sister and kissed her on the cheek. "Go ahead and tell him there was a change of plans or whatever. I would hate to ruin anything with you and your boyfriend." He winked at her.

"Boy why are you winking…" Mercedes stopped talking when she saw her little sisters staring at her."Jeremy." Mercedes narrowed her eyes. Knowing her sisters were about to bombard her with questions, she quickly said goodbye and nearly ran out of the door. Once Mercedes was in her car, she texted Sam.

OK. So, change of the change of plans. Jay is gonna take them to school. Leaving my house now. -Mercy

Mercedes pulled into Sam's driveway too see him sitting on his porch steps. She got out to go inside and talk to his family.

Before she could even make it to the steps, Sam stood in her way and put his hands on her arms in an effort to stop her. "Now is not a good time, Mercedes."

Mercedes looked at Sam like he was crazy. "What? Come on, Sam. This is practically my second house. I'm only going to see my little siblings and then to see your mom. I'll be right out. Promise." She tried to walk around him, but he stopped her again.

"Mercedes, seriously. Not now. Let's just go, alright?" He walked to the car and opened the driver's door so that she could get in.

Mercedes frowned. "Ok. Maybe some other time." She got in the car. "Thanks."

Sam walked to his side of the car and got in. As soon as Mercedes got onto the road, Sam grabbed her hand and kissed it. He sensed her anxious mood. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. I promise."

Mercedes exhaled slightly. At least he was ok enough to try and make her think that everything was fine. She decided to let it go for the time being. "So where do you want to go? You know, to eat."

"I'm kinda not hungry right now. Loss of appetite."

"Umm, okay." Mercedes thought for a second. "I know Kurt said that he and Blaine would be in the choir room at like 7:30. We'll be a little early, but I'm sure they won't mind if we joined. Whatcha think?" She looked over to him.

Sam looked forward, his face showing no emotion. "Alright."

At 7:15, Mercedes was pulling into the student parking lot of the school. She turned her car off and turned to Sam, who still had that blank look on his face. "Sam, are you sure everything's okay? You're kind of spacing out on me... again." Sam said nothing. Mercedes yelled his name loudly.

Sam shook in his seat before looking at Mercedes. "Oh. Yeah. What's up?"

"Sammy." Mercedes stared at him for a while, still unable to get anything out of him. She grabbed his hands gently and rubbed her thumbs across the back of them. "Sammy, you know I'm here, right? I've always been here. I'm here now. I'll always be here. It's not just a one time thing. You've told me stuff before, so just come out with it. And if you told Jay about me not actually having cheer practice it's ok we had a conversation about that already this morning." She smiled, trying to bring some light to the conversation.

Sam grinned slightly. Not enough to make Mercedes happy, but it was something. "No, I did not tell him that. But don't worry about earlier. I wasn't even thinking about that. I have a huge test today in French, and I have to make sure that I don't 'devenir un échec total'. I said that right, right?"

Mercedes chuckled. "Yeah. You're actually doing pretty good. But you wanna hear a secret?" She got out of the car and walked over to Sam's side and leaned on the car.

" Hell yeah. Always." Sam got out and stood in front of her, leaning down to hear the secret.

Mercedes stood up on her tiptoes and whispered into Sam's ear. "You'll never be better than me." Mercedes laughed at the disappointment in Sam's face.

"That is soooo not a secret." He chuckled as he touched their foreheads.

"It might not be, but it's true." Mercedes looked up at him and bit her lip.

Sam took her hands and interlocked their fingers. His eyes moved down from her eyes to her full lips. He wanted to kiss her so badly.

"Go ahead. You have permission."

Sam leaned in, and Mercedes closed her eyes.

Before they could kiss, Sam reluctantly pulled away. He just wasn't ready yet. They heard a high pitched voice behind them.

"Oh. My. God. MERCEDES!" Kurt came running up to the couple as they pulled away.

"Kurt." Mercedes smiled awkwardly. "I thought you weren't supposed to be here for another 10 minutes."

"Yeah we weren't. But Blaine said why not come in a little early so that anyone else who decided to come wouldn't be alone. Plus, we brought croissants for anyone who showed up." Kurt stepped aside to reveal Blaine holding a large box from the bakery.

Mercedes looked up at Sam. "Well, Kurt, we were kind of in the middle of some-"

"Oh. Would you look at this?" Kurt picked up Sam and Mercedes' interlocked hands. "Samcedes! I swear you two are soo cute together! Blaine, tell them how cute they both look."

Blaine nodded. "Yeah, you guys do look really good together. And with Mercedes' killer voice, you just might give Finchel a run for their money in glee club."

While Sam was enjoying the whole 'ooh look at Samcedes' moment, Kurt still held both of their hands in his, and Sam was starting to get really uncomfortable. "Hey, Kurt, buddy. You mind if we get our hands back?"

"Well," Kurt looked to Sam as if he was being rude. "You, Samuel, can have yours back all day long." He tore Sam's hand from Mercedes' and dropped it to his side, while keeping Mercedes' hand. "But this one's mine." Kurt interlocked his and Mercedes' arms and they both began to walk into the school. "Would you two be a couple of gentlemen and bring our bags? Thanks."

Mercedes turned around a mouthed an apology to Sam. Sam just chuckled and blew her a kiss.

Before she could return it, Kurt was talking again. "I'm so glad that you guys are finally together. Now we can go on double dates without it being awkward."

"Wait." Mercedes stopped walking. "Those were double dates? But Sam and I weren't together."

Kurt never stopped walking, so he had to yell a little. "Yeah but you are now, so we won't be having that problem anymore, now will we?"

Once the four got inside the choir room, they were sitting in a circle. Mercedes and Sam were holding hands and sharing a croissant, which prompted Kurt to express his feelings on their relationship again. "I swear, you guys just look so adorable. When are you going to get married?"

Mercedes almost choked. "Umm... Kurt? We just got together. I swear if one more person asks me something crazy like that. We are not getting married anytime soon. If we ever do get married." Kurt and Blaine looked at Mercedes as if she was fronting. "I love Sam as a friend we all know this. I also really really like him as a boyfriend. We all know this as well. That's the last time I'm saying it, so spread the word." Mercedes looked at Sam and noticed that he was still silent and was also finishing the croissant they were supposed to be sharing.

Sam's eyes widened as he realized that his friends were waiting on him to answer. "Yeah. What she said." He talked slowly at first. "I feel the same way. So, uh, spread the word?" He looked to Mercedes. "Is that what you said babe? Spread the word right?"

Mercedes nodded and chuckled. "Yes, Sam. That is what I said. But why did you eat the croissant I thought we were eating that together." She motioned to the crumbs on his face.

"Well, I knew you were trying to watch you figure. For cheerleading. Specifically Regionals. I just thought I'd help you out. For Regionals. Which was cancelled. But I still thought I cou-"

Kurt gasped as he brought his hand to his mouth. "Regionals was cancelled? Until when?"

Mercedes went to get another croissant out of the box. "Not cancelled, just postponed, and the date's still TBD. But you can believe Sue Sylvester was pissed."

"Yeah, she must've been." Blaine said. "I know you guys have been working on your routines and stuff a lot. Weren't practices supposed to be like, 24/7 this week? Why was it postponed?"

"I don't know for sure, but I read on the NCA high school blogs that Cynthia Hornet, who is one of the judges, sprain her pelvic muscles, so they postponed the whole competition." Mercedes leaned onto Sam and laughed.

"Why do you think that's so funny?" Sam looked over to his girlfriend.

Mercedes just rolled her eye and waved him off. "Hey, Kurt, did you invite anyone else? Because I doubt their coming."

Kurt looked at his watch. "Well, Rachel told me that she and Finn were coming. They always do. I just don't know where they are now."

"I don't know why I always thought this was lame. It's actually kinda cool." Mercedes looked at Sam. "Sam can you hand me my orange juice?"

"What?" Sam frowned. "What orange juice? You didn't tell me you had orange juice."

"Sam I always have orange juice in the mornings. You know that. Did you not get my orange juice when Kurt made you get my bags?"

Sam laughed. "Well, Mercedes, I guess not I thought you would get some orange juice whenever we went to get breakfast."

Mercedes got up from her chair. "Alright, I guess I have to go get more orange juice. Anybody else want anything?"

Kurt and Blaine shook their heads, while Sam decided to speak. "Actually, I could really go for-"

"You don't get anything, Evans. Next time remember my damn orange juice." Mercedes walked out of the classroom and down the hallway.

* * *

Lunch time.

Mercedes and Sam walk into the cafeteria holding hands, being greeted by other students with smiles, gasps, claps, pretty much anything one could think of. The couple goes to sit at their table while they wait for the other glee clubbers to arrive. Santana and Brittany are the first to show.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Santana sat down beside Mercedes. "New love. Fresh. Untainted by the dramatics of high school life. How do you guys do it?"

Mercedes smiled at Santana's statement. "3 days, Santana. You couldn't give us three days without saying something crazy?"

"Oh, please. You've been waiting since Friday for me to say something." She was right. Right indeed. "Anyways, what are you doing for lunch today?"

"Actually Sam and I-"

"I'll tell you what you're doing." Santana interrupted Mercedes without giving her a chance to answer. "You're coming off campus with me and Brittany. We're going to go get some lunch and maybe use next period to go look for dresses for prom. Wanna come?"

Mercedes looked at Santana, confused. "Santana, no dances have even started yet. And there won't even be anything good at any shops. Why in the hell are you looking for dresses already?"

Santana rolled her eyes. "Look, Wheezy. You're right. The school year did kind of just start a few months ago, which means that pretty much all dresses are on sale right about now. And, unlike you, we aren't all filthy rich and we don't have millions of dollars available to spend on a prom dress."

"Um, I do not have millions of dollars to spend on a damn dress."

"Whatever... Are you coming or not?"

Mercedes looked at Sam, who was sitting beside her and having his own conversation with Puck. She then looked back at Santana. "I don't know."

Santana smiled. "Ahh. I get it. You wanted to take Sam to one of your houses and make out."

Mercedes shushed her friend and brought her to the edge of the table where no one had sat yet. "Can you not do that? Sam and I are not. I repeat. Not doing that if we go to my house."

"Oh, really? Straight to the sex? I like that. Wanky." Santana winked.

"Santana. Stop this. Now. Sam and I aren't making out or having sex." Mercedes paused as she looked around to make sure no one else was listening. "We haven't even kissed yet." As Mercedes saw her friend's face twist in a weird way, she explained. "It's not me, alright?" Mercedes checked for eavesdroppers again. "I want to kiss him. I do. But I think he's scared to kiss me! It's like he's spent so many years having to force himself not to kiss me and now he has the right and the chance to kiss me and he won't take it! It's. Driving. Me. Crazy."

"Wait. So, you want to kiss him?"

"Yesssssss. So badly." Mercedes grunted. "I'm going crazy Santana. I want to kiss him so badly that him not kissing me is stressing me out." Santana started laughing in Mercedes' face. Mercedes quickly slapped her on the arm. "San, this is serious! I've got…..stress pimples."

"Holy crap," Santana said very loudly. She saw that other people had turned to look at them. She gave them a threatening face that told them to turn around, which they did. She decided to whisper this time. "Sorry. But stress pimples? Cedes, that's crazy. You couldn't be that stressed about the situation." Santana almost laughed, but saw that Mercedes was serious. "Where at?"

Mercedes winced. "Everywhere. Yeah it's bad. Especially around my armpits."

Santana gasped again and put her hands over her mouth. "Those are the worst kind. Cedes, you have to get this kiss over with. Do you know what Coach Sue would do if she found out that you had stress pimples on your armpits at regionals? She would've killed you!"

"I know that, San. But it's not that I don't want them gone. I want Sam to kiss me already! That's why I'm just trying to get every second I can with him. That way, if he ever gets over his fears, I'll be there and he can go ahead and do it."

"Ok, hold up." Santana put her hand on her forehead as if she was trying to figure it out. "If you want to kiss him so badly, just do it. There's literally nothing to it."

"It's not like that. I told you it's like he's scared to kiss me. He's been my best friend all these years, and he's been forcing himself not to kiss me. Now, he can but he won't. But I don't know if I'm right! That means, if I just haul off and kiss him, he might change his mind about us altogether. I need this to be something we both want. But if he can't show me that it's something he wants, then I can't bring myself to do it. If I at least knew that he wanted to kiss me. Then I could just go for it. I thought he wanted to try it this morning but he pulled away at the last second." Mercedes paused. "I don't even know why I'm getting so stressed over this. This should be like super easy, shouldn't it?"

Santana looked at Mercedes like she was crazy. Her friend was stressing herself out over nothing. "Come with me."

Santana began to get up when Sam called out for Mercedes. "Hey, Mercy. You ready? We've got to get to your house before your mom does."

He was right. If they didn't get in and out before her mom did on her lunch break, they would most certainly be flooded with a whole bunch of questions. Mercedes looked to Santana, to Sam, then back to Santana again. "Sorry, San. I have to go. We can talk later."

As Mercedes began to walk away, Santana called for her to stop. "What are you gonna do about-"

"Don't worry." Mercedes smiled slightly. "I'll take care of it." Sam and Mercedes walked out of the cafeteria and into the hallway, holding hands. Suddenly Mercedes realized she was forgetting something. She looked up at Sam. "Hey, can you go get my wallet from my locker? I left it in there. I'll be at the car."

"Yeah, sure. No problem." Sam bent down and kissed Mercedes on the cheek before jogging off to her locker.

Mercedes was looking for her keys when she heard someone walk up. She looked up and saw her ex-boyfriend, Shane. She smiled brightly. "Hey, Shane. How's it going?" Even though she and Shane were no longer together, they were still able to keep a friendship going.

"It's going pretty good, Mercedes. The um.. the whole football team is glad that Sam is back on the team. I figured you were to thank for that, So I just wanted to let you know."

"Well, Sam played a really big part too, but yeah. I helped him."

Shane started walking closer to her. "So, I heard you two are dating now?"

_Oh, no._ Mercedes thought. _Here we go again._ One of the big reasons that she and Shane broke up was because he was suspicious about her 'relationship' with Sam. "Yes, Shane. We are dating. But it's not what you think. Weren't you on the field Friday? You probably saw what happened."

"I left early on Friday. I had something I had to take care of." He got closer. "But I think you should know. I still love you."

Mercedes looked down towards the ground. "Yeah, Shane. I love you too. As a friend. You know that."

"No. Cedes." Shane replied quickly. He slowly took her hands in his as he spoke. "I mean love you, love you."

Mercedes yanked her hands out of his and brought them to her sides. "Shane, stop it. I'm with Sam. We just went over this. Of course, you'll always be special to me, but so will every other guy I have a long-term relationship with. Which, I think I should mention, is you and one other guy. We aren't getting back together. I'm with Sam, he's who I'm focusing on right now. Not you, not us, not this." She motioned between them. "Got it?"

Shane's face started to look pitiful. "So, you already love Sam? Is that what you're telling me? Because I know you still love me in that way. I know you do."

"Shane, I really need you to leave. Sam will be here soon. You know how he feels about you." Sam has been a little harsh towards Shane ever since Shane made Mercedes cry. Since Sam was the first person she always went to, he found out first. He was not happy.

"Yeah. Whatever. But just know. When you're crying because of him, I'll be here."

"Well, It's gonna be a while. So you can get the hell away from my girlfriend." Sam slowly walked up behind Shane, getting visibly angry.

Shane turned around. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Samuel 'Love To Steal Peoples' Girlfriends' Evans. Nice to see you, man."

"I didn't steal her from you, Shane. You made her cry, remember? That's when you two were done. She stopped being yours in that moment. So, you can leave now. You're a fucking fool if you think for even a second that she would get back with you." Sam kept getting angrier with every second that Shane was still in his sight.

"Sam don't talk to him like that, ok?" Mercedes walked in front of Sam and put her hand on his chest. "Shane, you need to leave. Sam, go get in the car. Both of you, move, now." The two boys just stood there, eyeing one another angrily. "DISPERSE." Mercedes shouted. The two finally did what they were told, and Mercedes got into her car. "We're not talking about it."

"We are talking about it." Sam retorted.

"Sam, don't do this. If I say we're not talking about it, ten we're not. That's it."

"No, Mercedes that's not it. We don't just let things happen and not talk about them."

"Get over it, Sam. If I can get over what he did to me, then you can too. I told you we're not talking about it. I don't want to hear anything else about it."

Sam just rolled his eyes and stayed silent for the rest of the ride. Once Mercedes pulled into her driveway, she got out hie Sam stayed in the car, seat belt still buckled. Mercedes went over to the passenger's side of her car. "Get out." He stayed there. Mercedes unbuckled his seatbelt. "We're here now, Sam. You can get out of the car." Nothing. "Fine. Forget it. I'm going in the house. You can sit your ass there if you want to. See if I care." Mercedes stomped away. After a few seconds, she stopped and came back to Sam. "I don't want him back, if that's what you're thinking." Silence. "I might still love him, but I don't want him back. I'm with you now."

Suddenly, Sam spoke. "It's not that." He was still looking straight ahead.

"I never slept with him, either. And you know I'm not exactly the hardest to get into a bed." Silence again. "It was never right like that. I never had the same feelings for him that I do for you. This is different. I don't want him."

"It's not that, either."

There was another moment of silence between the couple. Mercedes finally spoke up. "Well, then, what is it? I'm not going to stop talking to him, if that's what it is. If my being friends with him bothers you that much, you're just going to have to deal with it because-"

"My dad's drinking again." Sam's voice sounded soft, delicate... heartbroken.

Mercedes hadn't looked at him since she walked to him the second time. But she looked at him now. He looked misty eyed. His previously numb look had turned into one of utter sadness. "Sam," Mercedes was at a loss for words.

"That's why I didn't want you to come in this morning, that's why you ended up driving us to school. My truck isn't away at the shop. My dad got drunk last night and nearly totaled it. He somehow drove back home. He came in, making a lot of noise. He was all bloodied up. My truck isn't in the shop, it's in the backyard. He spent all this money on a whole bunch of alcohol, and he lost his job a few weeks ago. We don't have the money to get it fixed. My mom is making enough money to support us. But not enough money to pay for Stevie and Stacy's guitar lessons and basketball stuff."

"Sammy." Mercedes grabbed his hands that were in his lap. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I just found out last night, Mercedes." Sam's voice began to break. "I could barely pull myself together. But I had to. You were so excited about going to school today, with it being our first day as a couple. I couldn't disappoint you."

"You should've told me earlier. I would've come over last night. No matter how late it was. You know that. I told you that whatever you needed, no matter what time it was-"

"Can we just go inside now?" Sam looked at Mercedes for the first time since they left the school. Multiple tears had fallen. And Mercedes could see that there were many more to come.

"Yeah. Sure. Come on." Mercedes said softly as she helped him out of the car. Once the got in the house, Mercedes told Sam to have a seat in the living room. She started to make them something for lunch, but realized that this wasn't the time. "You're not really that hungry, are you?" Sam was silent again. Mercedes took that as a no and joined him on the tan love seat. She took his hands in hers and kissed them. "It's going to be alright. I promise." Their foreheads came together. "Nothing's going to harm you. Nothing's going to harm your family. I promise. I promise. I promise."

Her eyes were closed. Sam suddenly noticed the scar right under her left eye. She had gotten it when they were six. She fell off the monkey bars and scratched herself in the process. Sam was scared shitless. Even though Mercedes was brave. Mercedes had always been the brave one. She wasn't afraid of anything. Sam's heart was pounding. It felt as if his heart was coming out of his chest. He couldn't take it anymore. He closed his eyes and slowly touched his lips to hers. She reciprocated the kiss and they held it for a couple seconds before she pulled away. Once Mercedes pulled away, Sam pulled her right back in, kissing her multiple times, each time slow and soft.

Even though Sam's eyes were closed, he was still crying. He didn't know whether or not it was because of his dad, because of the fact that Mercedes was so beautiful, or both. All he knew was that, for some reason, it just wouldn't stop. He leaned onto Mercedes and held onto her for dear life. "Why is this happening to me, Mercy? What did I do?"

Mercedes hugged him back. "I don't know, Sam. I don't know why this is happening to you, but you didn't do anything." Sam's silent tears soon turned into whines that said something that Mercedes couldn't identify, which then turned into full blown sobs. Mercedes laid his head in her lap. She only did this so that he couldn't hear her crying too. "Shhh. It's ok Sammy. Everything will be ok." Mercedes' voice shook as she spoke. She was barely keeping it together. All she did was repeat those words. "Everything will be okay." "It's going to be alright. I promise" "It's not your fault." "He'll get better. He's done it before." Sam continued to cry until he fell asleep. Mercedes didn't bother to wake him. She know he had probably been up all night. She texted Santana and told her that she and Sam were gonna be a while. She then continued to cry quietly until Sam began to snore. The Evans' were like her second family and Dwight was like a second father to her. Knowing that he was going through this again broke her heart. She slowly got up and placed a pillow under his head. She went off to the kitchen, sat down at the marble island, and called her brother.

"Hey, little sis. What's up?"

"Jay," Mercedes sniffled. "I need you to do something for me."

"Are you crying? What happened? Are you okay? Did something happen with Sam? Are you okay?"

"Yes, something happened with Sam. But I'm fine. Sam's not."

"Okay." Jay exhaled. "What is it then? Why are you crying and what's wrong with Sam?"

"I need you to fix Sam's truck. For free." Mercedes noticed her brother's silence and took it as a sign to explain. "You can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, Jay."

"You've got my word, Cedes."

"Okay." Mercedes took a deep breath before continuing. "Dwight is drinking again. Sam said he almost totaled his truck last night, but he lost his job some weeks ago and Mary can't afford to pay for it alone. Sam needs his truck fixed. I don't know how bad of a shape it's in, but he can't do anything with it, so I'm guessing it's pretty bad."

"Dwight's really drinking again? I thought he was doing really good?"

"He was. But I guess..." Mercedes paused. "I don't even know. But can you do it? Please?"

"Yeah. No problem. No problem at all. Is Sam ok? What is he doing now? Do you need me to come over there? I can come right now this has been a slow day." Jay almost sounded panicky.

"No, no. It's alright. He cried and then I cried and he's sleeping now. We'll be fine. I'm going to try to get him back to school today. If he doesn't go, I won't make him. He'll just stay here. I'm going to call Coach Sue and let her know what's going on."

"Woah, Cedes. You sure Sam would be ok with so many people knowing his business like that?"

"I don't care what he's ok with." Mercedes snapped. "He's probably going to try to keep this as private as he can but I'm not letting it happen. I'm not letting his father stress him out like that."

Jay sighed into the phone. "Alright. Just let me know if you guys need anything. I'll go by his house sometime soon and pick up his truck."

"Okay. Thanks, Jay. I really, really, really appreciate it."

"No problem. Love you, sis."

"Love you too. Bye." Mercedes hung up the phone.

She went in the living room to make sure that Sam was still asleep. She then went back to the kitchen to call Sue. Sue understood the situation, and said that she would let Coach Beiste and Mr. Schue know as well. Once she got that done, she made Sam something to eat. She knew that once he woke up, he would probably be hungry. She also made herself something before going upstairs to her bathroom to fix her makeup, which had no doubt been ruined by her crying. She went back downstairs and sat in the big brown La-Z-Boy recliner across from where Sam slept, and just watched him sleep. It was sad. Even when he was supposed to be relaxing, his face was still sad. She sat there and watched him until she had to leave to make sure he was sleeping ok. She had to go now. She went to Sam and nudged him slightly. "Sammy, wake up." Once Sam opened his eyes, Mercedes told him that she had to leave in little bit. "Our free period is almost over. You can stay here, alright? You can sleep in my room, and I made you something to eat if you get hungry, okay? Come one, let's go upstairs." Mercedes got him out of the chair and followed him upstairs to her bedroom, where she pulled back the covers so that he could get in. Once he was settled, she bent down and rubbed his forehead. "Ok. I want you to sleep, Sammy. Can you do that for me? Just sleep for as long as you need to. If you're hungry when you wake up, I made your favorite sandwich. Turkey and Ham on white with mayo, mustard, and all that good stuff. I'll be back as soon as I get out of glee. My parents have patients and my sisters both have sleepovers tonight so you'll be here by yourself unless Jay comes over. Get some rest ok?" She kissed him lightly on his forehead. "I love you, Sammy." Mercedes got up to leave when she felt Sam's hand holding her wrist. Sam pulled her down towards him and kissed her on the lips. She smiled and kissed him once more before leaving the room and heading back to the school.

**2019 A/N**

I forgot how not-short these chapters got lol


	6. How Do You Do It?

Stacy Evans- Sasha Pieterse

Stevie Evans- Cody Simpson

* * *

"Do you know how long this has been going on?" Mr. Schue asked in disbelief.

"Overall," Mercedes looked into her teacher's eyes. As soon as she got to the school, Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury found her and asked her to come and talk. "It's been a good 4 years or so that he's been addicted. But he sobered up whenever we were about… maybe 15? But, from what Sam told me, he just relapsed last night or a few weeks ago or something. I don't know honestly."

"And Sam's getting some rest at your house, right?" Ms. Pillsbury asked.

"Yeah. He needed it. I don't think he's gotten much sleep lately. This is just really hard on him, you know?" Tears sprang to Mercedes' eyes. "He's just always been so strong. Last time this happened, his mom thought about sending him to therapy because he was at that age. The age where you're so impressionable. Now Stevie's getting to be that age and he can't handle it in the way that Sam could. I'm just so worried about all of them." Mercedes cried some more. "And Sam, my god Sam has been trying his hardest to do his best in his schoolwork and trying to stay afloat and I just don't know what's going to happen." By now, Mr. Schue had come over and hugged Mercedes, allowing her to cry. "Sam can't start failing now. Or his mom will 100% send him to therapy. Mr. Schue, what if I can't help Sam this time? I've been there for him so much…" Mercedes couldn't talk for her tears.

"I understand, Mercedes." Mr. Schue was still hugging her. "You two have been best friends since you were in diapers. You've been there for anything and everything he's needed, and you're afraid of the day when you won't be enough to help him or solve his problems."

"You know, Mercedes," Ms. Pillsbury stood up from her chair and kneeled down in front of Mercedes. "Almost everyone has someone that they feel for like that. These feelings will become even stronger since you two are in a relationship now. But you have to trust that Sam knows what to do. You don't have to protect him and shield him from everything. You probably can't. You and Sam you're both what, 16, 17? You're almost adults. With everything Sam's been through, he can get through this. And just let me know if he ever has a hard time dealing with it you can bring him here and we can find some help groups or someone he can talk to."

"Thanks a lot Ms. P but isn't that the same thing as therapy?" Mercedes looked into Ms. Pillsbury's eyes.

"Well," Ms. Pillsbury walked around her desk and went behind it to retrieve a brochure. "Kind of, but not really." She handed Mercedes the brochure. "The groups have all the nice parts of therapy. Like expressing your problems and providing a way to relieve stress without the parts of therapy everyone dislikes like being asked why they think this happened or having to talk about their feelings even if they don't want to. And it's not just for Sam. You can go too if you'd like. Family, friends, significant others, anyone affected by this or dealing with it. It welcomes pretty much everybody. I think it would be a really good place to start should Sam-"

"Or you, for that matter." Mr. Schue interrupted.

"Right. Or you, or his family or his friends. This would be a good place to start if you're not ready-"

"Or if you can't afford." Mr. Schue again.

"Full blown therapy." Back to Ms. Pillsbury. "There's one for all age groups. So, if Sam's siblings want to go they can go too. At the children's and teens groups, they do more fun stuff. It's not just, talk, talk, talk. It's something they can actually enjoy."

Mercedes tried to process all of the information that had just been given to her. "Thanks, you guys. I really appreciate this." Even though Mercedes was no longer crying, you could still hear the tears in her voice.

"Anytime, Mercedes." Mr. Schue said. "And if you or Sam ever want to talk to me or Ms. Pillsbury, just let us know. We'll be here. But you know the rest of the club. They're going to want to know where Sam is."

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah. I know that. I won't tell them exactly what's going on. I need to let Sam decide if and how he wants to do that. I'm just going to give them a quick, barely informing overview and hope that no one asks any questions." She chuckled slightly and thanked her teachers again as she walked out of Ms. Pillsbury's office.

"Mercedes, wait." Mr. Schue caught up to Mercedes in the hallway. "I talked to Sue. She said that if you needed to skip out on practice today, she understands. You need your rest too." He put his hand on her shoulder. "Sam is very lucky to have you, Mercedes. But you're not alone either. You need your rest too."

Mercedes smiled sweetly. Her eyes were still slightly flooded from tears she had not yet shed. "Thank you, Mr. Schue. This means more to me than you know. It's just so weird. And sudden. I was talking to Sam's dad just the other day at Sam's house. Everything seemed completely fine. I was with his mom last week picking out a dress for Stacy's surprise birthday party. She didn't even hint that anything was going on… I just don't know how I let it slip. How I didn't notice. How I comp-" Mercedes could barely talk for the lump in her throat. She brought her hand to her mouth as she ran off. "I'm sorry." She heard Mr. Schue say something, but she couldn't understand what it was. She kept running until she found an empty classroom. She locked herself in and started to make a call.

"Hey, little sis. What's up?"

"Jay," More tears began to fall down Mercedes' cheeks. "I can't do it. I just can't"

"Can't do what? What are you talking about?"

"Everything." The faster Mercedes talked, the more her breathing intensified. "I can't think, I can't breathe. I could barely drive myself here. I need to go home. I need you to come and get me. I can't drive myself this is too much."

"Mercedes, what is going on? Just tell me."

"This whole thing with Sam and Dwight and Mary and everyone I just can't deal with it Jay. I thought I was fine. I mean, I was sad at first and I cried but now, I don't know. I feel sick, Jay. My heart is racing. And I'm sweating. And I'm shaking. And my hands are clammy. And my head hurts. Jay, I feel like I'm going to puke. I just need you to come get me please." Mercedes sobbed quietly as she put her hand on her chest to try to slow her breathing.

"Okay. Cedes, I want you to listen to me. Can you do that? Where are you right now?"

"I'm at the school, Jay. Now is not a time for games. Please don't do that. Can you just come and get me? I can't drive right now."

"No, I'm not going to come get you because you can get through this. Where are you in the school? Are you in the bathroom?"

"No, I'm in a classroom."

"Alright. Good. I want you to walk around the classroom. Don't pace, just walk normally. Like a stroll in the park. Ok? Do it now. Just stroll." Jay's soothing voice helped to calm Mercedes down some.

She tried to walk slowly around the classroom, but it only helped a little. Her breathing had slowed, but it wasn't back to normal because she was crying. She tried to form words in between her gasps for air. "Alright…now what?"

"Can you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Good. I want you to try and do that breathing exercise for me. Can you do that? Just breathe. Come on." Jay did the breathing exercise with her. "Breath in, hold it, breathe out." She had cooled down and she could breathe again. Jay chuckled. "Yeah. You got that right."

Mercedes' heartbeat had steadied and she could breathe normally once again. She proceeded to go a little deeper into what happened with Sam before lightening the mood with the news of their first kiss. The siblings laughed some more before realizing that there was a world outside of their phone call.

"Alright, little sis. I've got to go. I've got oil changes and stuff. You know how it is. You ok for me to hang up?"

Mercedes smiled into the phone. Even though she wanted to keep talking to her brother, she was happy because he was able to make her calm down. "Yeah, I know how it is. And yeah, I'm ok. Thanks for this. I really needed you. Thanks for being there. Whenever I can't go to Sam or it's not right or I just don't want to, you're always there. You might not be mom and dad's favorite, but you are most certainly mine." Mercedes laughed again.

"Haha, very funny." Jay said sarcastically. "You know I'm there for you, Cedes. I'm always there. Look, I have some stuff to do right now, but if I'm not at the house by the time you get out of glee, I'll make sure I'm on my way over. I might try and talk to Sam or something. Figure out what's going on. Love you sis."

"Love you too bro. See ya." Mercedes hung up and went to the bathroom to fix her makeup again. Looking in the mirror, she grunted. "God, I hope I don't cry anymore today. My makeup could not take it." She decided to go to the football field for the rest of the school day. No one was out there because it was so cold. She wasn't freezing. She had on her warm-ups under her skirt. But she didn't care whether she was freezing or not. She needed to be alone. She also texted Sam and told him to call her once he woke up. She knew they needed to talk about his dad and she was nervous. Mercedes shook her head to clear her mind. She just sat on the bleachers, feeling the bitterness of the harsh breeze. Before long, she heard her phone ringing. Figuring it was Sam, she picked up right away. "Hey, baby. Are you okay? Did you eat yet? Do you want me to bring you anything? I should have enough time before glee if you want anything."

"It's fine, Mercy." Sam still had that same sadness in his voice. "I already ate. The sandwich was very good. Thank you. You don't need to come back. I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to let it all out like that. I don't even know where it all came from."

"Don't be sorry. You needed it. Make sure you drink some water. You're probably really dehydrated. You cried a lot. I don't want you any worse off than you already are… no offense."

Sam smiled sadly. "None taken. So, I guess I should tell you. I called, yes because you told me to, but also because I wanted to talk about something."

"Alrighty." Mercedes stood up and started to walk around the football field. She had no idea what he was about to say.

"The kiss." That was all Sam said.

"Was a kiss. A kissed that happened." Mercedes smiled and bit her lip.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. About the kiss. I'm sorry about the kiss. I was just hurt and confused and you were there and I was… hurt and confused. I know I said that twice. I just don't know what to say. We were so close and we were holding hands and things were happening in my head. I'm sorry." Sam sounded remorseful.

Does he really regret that kiss? Mercedes thought. "Stop it, Sam. Don't be sorry about the kiss. It was a nice kiss. A really nice kiss. I liked it. Like, a lot. It was an amazing kiss. It really fit the moment, you know? Most first kisses are just wrong for the moment. Or it's too public. But it can also be too private. Like, if you're in a bathroom or something. Then, not only would it be too private, but it would be awkward as hell."

"Mercedes. You're rambling."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that." She laughed. "What were you saying again?"

"I wasn't saying anything." Sam must've turned the tv on in her living room, because Mercedes could hear it on her end. "I had finished. I didn't mean to kiss you at the moment. But, you're right. It did feel right? Is that a good word?"

Mercedes' grin broke out into a full blown smile. "Yes, Sam. That is a very good word. A perfect word." Mercedes got the feeling that Sam was about to end the conversation, so she needed to tell him what she did. "Sammy, I have something I need to tell you."

"Okay. What is it?" He turned the volume down on the tv.

"There's a reason I let you stay at my house earlier instead of going back to school. It was because you needed the rest, yes. But it was also because I notified some people on what was going on."

There was nothing but silence between the two for a while. Mercedes didn't say anything because she wanted him to process it.

"Who?"

"Who what?"

"Who did you tell?"

"Oh," Mercedes tried to figure out how to say this. "I told Coach Sylvester. And then I had her tell Beiste and Mr. Schue."

"Mercedes-"

"And I told Jay too."

"What the hell, Mercedes? Are you serious right now?" Sam was starting to get loud. "What were you thinking? If I want everyone to know I'll do it my damn self."

"Ok, don't raise your voice at me." Mercedes said slowly, trying to stay calm herself. "I told them because they needed to know, Sam. This isn't going to be like last time! You can't just go stay with your aunt until things get better! You have two little siblings to look after now! Two little siblings who might not be old enough to know what's going on."

"Stevie will understand it just fine. I was just a year older than him when this happened the first time. And Stacy. I don't know how she's going to deal with it, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"No, Sam!" Mercedes shouted this time. "We can't cross that bridge when we get to it. Last time this happened, Stacy had just got out of diapers. We have to cross it now. The longer we wait, the worse it'll be. And Stevie. Sam, as much as I know you'll hate to hear this, Stevie is not you. He's not as mature and independent as you were at that age. You were tough, Sam. You didn't depend on someone for things you didn't need to depend on someone for. Stevie doesn't do that. Think about it. He still sleeps with a night light. He loves your father. Idols him. Strives to be like him. If anyone is going to be hurt by this, it's him. You need to talk to him, Sam. You also need to tell the glee club."

"Dammit, Mercedes. Let me do whatever the hell I want to do. It's my business. You never should've told anyone in the first place."

"But Sam, me telling people is going to be good for you. Whenever I got back to the school Ms. Pillsbury told me about the group session thing. It's like a passive form of therapy, and I think-"

"Ms. Pillsbury knows too? God, Mercedes. Who didn't you fucking tell. I don't tell you shit for you to go and tell everyone. What I tell you, I tell you in confidence. I can't believe you even did this. You could've at least told me first."

Mercedes started to tear up again. Dammit. She thought. "Sam, you were sleeping. And I didn't know you would react like this. This is not 6 years ago. This is now. That's why I didn't think you would be so angry. I'm sorry."

Sam must've heard something in her voice, because he cursed himself before apologizing for fussing at her. "Don't cry. I didn't mean to make you cry. I don't want you to think I'm not grateful for you and for your help, because I am. It's just that…" Sam's voice trailed off.

"What is it, Sammy?" Mercedes said softly. "Go ahead."

"It's just that I haven't even processed this whole thing yet. You were right when you said that I'm more independent and I'm tough. But some things are harder for me to deal with. When he beat this the first time, I thought everything was alright. I just wasn't ready for it. I can't have other people knowing when it feels like I don't even know it yet. I appreciate your caring about me. Really, I do. And I don't want to fight with you or make you cry. I just wish you would've waited to tell people."

Mercedes had sat back down now and was able to stop her tears before they fell. "It's okay. But Sam, you have to realize how serious this is. And for the record, I never planned to tell the glee club. I want you to tell them. But they're going to ask questions about where you are, so I was going to say something. Something needs to be said." Mercedes heard footsteps approaching. "Look, I know this isn't over, and we still have some stuff to talk about, but someone's coming and I think it might be Coach Sue, so I'm gonna go, okay? I'll be over as soon as I can. Promise."

"Alright. I love you, Cedes. Thanks for this."

Mercedes smiled shyly. She didn't know in what way he meant it when he told her that he loved her, but she didn't care. Whatever way he meant it, she felt the same. "I love you too, Sammy. I'll see you later." She ended the call, and turned around to the person who was walking up. "Hey, Coach, glad you came. I just got off of the phone with… Shane."

"In the flesh, Miss Jones." Shane walked up to Mercedes with a smile on his face and sat down next to Mercedes.

Only thing was, Shane sat way too close to Mercedes. She stood up quickly. "Don't touch me. I kept Sam from pulverizing you earlier, but if you keep this up, I won't hesitate to let him pulverize you any chance he gets. Don't cross him. And, just so you know, crossing me is crossing him."

"Look, Lara-"

"Mercedes. Is my name. Not Lara, not Mercy, not Cedes. It's Mercedes." Mercedes put her hands on her hips. How dare he try to bring up her middle name. Mercedes' middle name had always been a soft spot for her. She had had enough. She didn't want to hear anything Shane had to say to her. The school day was almost over anyways, and she needed to get to the choir room.

"Alright. Mercedes. I just wanted to ask you-"

"I'll have to talk to you later, Shane." Mercedes waved Shane off and started to walk away from him.

"Fine. Whatever. Just know that Sam already has a girlfriend. Who's not you." Mercedes stopped walking. Shane took that as a sign that he should continue. "Believe it or not, her actual name is Larissa. Larissa Smith. She goes to Carmel High if you wanna check her out. If I'm right, she should be in Vocal Adrenaline. It's weird, though." He started to walk towards Mercedes, who stood still. "Isn't that like, your rival glee club?" Shane chuckled sarcastically. "I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like a pretty genius ass idea. That way, when he's moaning your middle name," Shane stopped walking right behind Mercedes and bent down to whisper in her ear. "He's probably actually thinking of her." Shane walked in front of Mercedes and didn't look back. "See you later, Mercedes.

Mercedes stood there, frozen. She thought that she would cry again, but she didn't. Instead of crying, she just found herself feeling… angry? Upset? Small? She didn't know what this feeling was. Another girl? She thought. Yeah, right. Sam doesn't have another girl. I would've found out about her. She heard the bell ringing, ending the school day and interrupting her thoughts. She sat there for another 15 minutes. Whatever. Forget this and forget Shane. This is crazy.

As soon as Mercedes made it back into the school building, she saw Sam standing at her locker. She went over to him and hugged him. "What are you doing here? I thought you wanted to stay at my house?"

Sam took her hand in his and began walking towards the choir room. "I did. But your brother came over and talked some sense into me." He saw the frightened look on Mercedes' face and laughed. "No, he didn't beat me up. Basically, what he said was I was sitting and sulking and letting it take over me, when I should be getting up and taking this thing down and not letting it defeat me. He helped to clear my mind up a little bit. So, I told him to drop me off here."

"Alright. So, you're ok now, right? Like no more crying and making me cry when you cry? Because that sucked. I don't want to do that anymore."

They stood beside the door to the choir room. Mercedes leaned against the wall as Sam took her other hand and started swinging them. "No more, I promise. Look. I'm going to do everything I can to try and help my father and still help myself. I'm going to find a job to help my mom out. Something near a bus stop so I can get to and fro. I'm going to call Stacy and Stevie's friends' parents to see if someone can keep them, I guess. Just for a little while until we get everything situated. I know it's going to be a lot, but I also want you to keep tutoring me. If I'm going to figure out all this other stuff, my grades should be the least of my worries. Do you think you could do that?"

Mercedes smiled. She almost wasn't listening to what he was saying. She loved that he was taking charge of his own life just like he said. "I can help you with anything you need, Sammy. Just ask. And, if you want, Stacy and Stevie can stay with us. That way, you never have to worry about where they are or who they're with. It's not like we don't have the space."

Sam chuckled. Boy, did they ever. Mercedes' house was so large that there were 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and one half-bath. It was enormous. And he didn't even count the guest house. "Thanks, Mercy. Sam leaned towards her and smiled. "I'm going to kiss you now, okay?"

Mercedes returned the smile. "Fine by me." She whispered.

The kiss wasn't long. It wasn't short either. That kiss turned into two, which turned into four, which turned into more Mercedes caressed Sam's face and Sam's hands rested on Mercedes' waist.

Santana came out of nowhere, laughing."Well, you two sure aren't wasting any time are you?" She continued once she saw the couple stop kissing. "First kiss earlier and now you're ready to swallow one another."

"Calm down, Santana." Quinn came up beside Santana. "They were not swallowing one another. They were just having fun. Remember that 'new love' thing?"

"Wait a minute." Mercedes moved out of Sam's hold. "Santana? You told people about our conversation at lunch?"

"She did Mercedes. She did indeed." Tina was walking down the hallway with Mike. She whispered something to Mercedes before going in the choir room. "I have something for the stress pimples if you need it."

"What did you just say, Tina?" Mercedes turned her head to find her friend gone. She turned back to Santana. "Who didn't you tell?"

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I sure as hell didn't tell Rachel." Santana followed everyone except Sam and Mercedes into the choir room.

Sam stepped aside to let Mercedes walk through the door first. Before she went in, she turned around and looked up at Sam. "Are you going to tell them? I mean, if you're not ready, by all means, don't do it. But just know that people are probably going to ask questions and you know how they can be. They can pry it out of you. So just let me know if you can't take it or you want them to stop or you want to leave we can go okay? I'm not going to force you to do anythi-"

"Stop rambling, Mercy." Sam laughed as he put his hands on her shoulders. "It's okay. Sure, I might not want to talk about it. But they're our family. We can trust them. Well, most of them." The couple laughed together. "Don't worry. If they want, I'll start them off with something subtle. Then, if they continue to ask, I won't mind telling them. It's just how life goes sometimes, Cedes."

"And to think. A few hours ago, you were all broken up about this thing. What exactly did my brother say to you?" Mercedes eyed Sam suspiciously.

Sam smiled as he put his arm around her. "I told you. He pretty much just told me to stop feeling sorry for myself and do something about it. Gave me some confidence. Now let's go in there. We've got a debut to make." They both walked into the choir room.

* * *

Mercedes walked in the door to her house. Once she and Sam left the school, they went to go get some ingredients for Mercedes to make dinner tonight. Her mother made an emergency business trip to Chicago, and her dad said that he had to stay at the office, which meant she would have to watch her sisters for the night. Sam asked if he and his siblings could stay over. Mercedes said that she didn't mind, but he needed to check with his mom to make sure she was ok to stay by herself with Dwight.

"She'll be fine. I... might've asked her if we could stay already. But, that's no big deal. What are we eating tonight?" Sam asked while carrying the groceries. "You never told me."

"Don't worry about it. I'm not even starting on it yet." Mercedes was walking through her house and still couldn't see all of the little siblings. She asked Jeremy to pick them up from after-school, and he told her that they had gotten home about an hour ago. "Go ahead and put the stuff away. I'm going to go find the kids."

"Hey, wait." Sam called her back to him.

"Yeah?"

"Gimme a smooch." He puckered his lips.

Mercedes smiled as she put her hand on his shoulder, brought him down to her level, and gave him a peck on the cheek. When she started to walk away, Sam quickly put the groceries down and turned her around to plant a kiss on her lips. "That's what you call a smooch, sweetheart." He turned around and picked up the groceries before heading into the kitchen.

Mercedes laughed and she went to find everybody. Her first thought was to check the game room, but it was silent in there, so she didn't bother looking. She checked outside next, then in her little sisters' rooms, and then in her room. She was about to check the game room when she heard a giggle in her bathroom. She went into her bathroom and saw someone's shadow. It must've been Stacy, because whoever this was had her hair in a ponytail, and neither of her sisters left the house in a ponytail that morning. Mercedes pretended that she didn't see the 8 year old. "Hmm... it seems like I heard something here in my bathroom, but I don't see anything." She heard another giggle. "Did it come from the cabinet?" Mercedes opened the cabinet and listened for another giggle. Once she heard it, she continued. "Or is it under the sink?" Another giggle. "I know." Mercedes gasped. "The giggle came from..." She waked over to the shower curtain as if she was about to pull it back, and turned around at the last second. "the toilet!" Instead of a giggle this time, what she heard was a full blown cackle. Mercedes knew for sure that it was Stacy now. "Wait a minute. That sounded like it came from..." Mercedes pulled back the shower curtain to reveal Stacy looking up at her. "There's my girl!" Mercedes picked Stacy up and spun her around before putting her down. "Why were you hiding in my bathroom?" Mercedes smiled at the little girl.

Stacy broke into laughter before she could answer the question. "It was Jay's idea. He said we should hide until you and Sammy got here."

"So everybody's just hiding? All over the house?"

Stacy frowned. "Except for Stevie. He said he didn't want to. He's in the game room."

"No, he wasn't. I didn't hear anything when I went by the game room. I didn't think anybody was in there. How about you just take me to everybody else. We'll find him soon enough. Come on." Mercedes grabbed Stacy's hand and followed her to find everyone.

Sam finished putting the groceries away and went into the game room to look for Stevie. The game room was Stevie's favorite place in the Jones residence. Besides the kitchen, that is. Instead of finding Stevie playing with the various xboxes or playstations that there were, he found him sitting in one of the bean bags. That's all he was doing. Sam went and sat beside his little brother and tousled his hair. "What's up, champ?"

Stevie just sat there. "Nothing much."

Sam frowned. Stevie didn't act like this. "You sure, Steve-o?"

Stevie jumped up and grabbed a couple of controllers. "Yeah, sure. Let's play something." Stevie handed his brother the controller and turned on the tv. Once the game started, Stevie talked. "So, uh... Mercedes. You're dating her now?"

Sam could tell that Stevie was trying to distract him, but he answered anyways. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Jeremy told us. Stacy and Ayana thought you guys were already dating."

"No way. Did they really?"

Stevie chuckled. "Yeah, really. It's not that hard to believe. You guys are kind of always falling over one another."

"What?" Was all Sam could say before he was tackled by someone. "Stevie!" Sam shouted. "Stevie! Pause the game!"

Stevie laughed. "No thanks bro. It's not like you were gonna win anyways."

Sam figured out that all of the little sisters were attacking him, so he knew Mercedes had to be around somewhere. "Cedes! Help!" The girls weren't doing anything, they were just laying on him. But when you have 3 girls laying on you, not moving at all, it's pretty hard to get up. He heard Mercedes' laughter, which pretty much meant she wasn't helping anytime soon. "Girls, please. Please let me up." Sam begged and pleaded, but the girls wouldn't budge. Sam decided it was time to bring out the big guns. "Well, I guess that since we can't let poor ol' Sammy up, we'll just have to miss out on Cedar Point this weekend!"

Sam immediately felt like he could breathe again. The girls were screaming a mix of "Cedar Point?", "We're so sorry!", "We wanna go to Cedar Point!", and things of the like.

"Cedar Point?" Mercedes asked, confused. "Since when are we going to Cedar Point?" She put her hands on her hips as she walked into the room.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. Since a few months ago maybe? I forgot exactly what Jay said."

"Jay told you this?" Mercedes looked at Sam waiting on a response. He didn't answer. "Did he?" Mercedes barked.

Sam shrugged again. "I don't know." He spoke softly as he avoided Mercedes' gaze. "It could've been him. It could've been somebody else. I just know so many people, you know? It's hard to tell exactly who it is that told me that. Then again, it might not even be us going to Cedar Point. You know that? It could actually be somebody totally different and I just-"

"Alright, everybody. Here's what we're going to do. I want you guys to go and wash your hands, you're going to help me make dinner. That sound good?" Mercedes talked to the children.

They all agreed and began walking out of the room while Stevie asked what they were having. Mercedes went over to him and whispered something to him. Stevie grinned from ear to ear. "Buffalo chicken pizza!" He exclaimed. All the kids dashed off to the bathroom to wash their hands, and Sam tried to follow.

Since Mercedes was standing at the door again, she caught Sam trying to leave and put her hand on his chest, stopping him. "And just where in the hell do you think you're going, Mr. 'I Just Know So Many People'?"

"Well.. You told them to... Buffalo chicken pizza." Sam answered sheepishly.

Mercedes shook her head. "No. We're not done talking. What did my brother say to you about Cedar Point?"

"Mercedes," Sam stepped closer to her. "It's a two-hour drive."

Mercedes snapped. "I _know_ it's a two-hour drive. I always get carsick on said drive. Do I not?"

"Yes, but my mom has this new anti-motionsickness medicine. She told me to give to you because it really works. I mean, I left it at home this morning but you know that I wasn't exactly thinking about some medicine at the point-"

"Sam! Listen to me. I don't care if it's a two-hour drive or a two-minute drive. I don't care if I get carsick. Everytime I go to Cedar Point, something bad happens and it pretty much ruins my whole trip. I'm not going." Mercedes crossed her arms and looked at her boyfriend.

Sam kept walking towards Mercedes. "Cedes, it's not that bad."

"Oh, really? Well let's see." Mercedes began to count on her fingers. I was 3 the first time I went. As soon as I got there, I got some weird bird flu thing from the people who worked there."

"Oh, please. Mercedes, there were like 50 other people that got that same 'flu'. That doesn't count."

"Ok. I was 5 and 7 the next times. Food poisoning _both_ times, Sam. Both times! When I was 10, I had a broken leg-"

"That you broke during gymnastics, Mercedes. Has nothing to do with Cedar Point."

"Which has _everything_ to do with Cedar Point because do you know what you can do at Cedar Point with a broken leg? Not a lot. When I was 12, I got my fucking period, Sam. Who does that ever even happen to?"

"Pretty much every woman gets their period, Mercedes."

"No, Sam. What woman gets her period in the middle of the summer at an amusement park with her best friend, who is a _dude_. Then, at 15, I was carsick the whole ride there and back, and I got a migraine that lasted nearly the whole time, and I was really dehydrated."

"Yeah, babe. I do. In case you forgot, I not only kept your hair out of your puke, but I stayed in the condo thing with you the whole time. I didn't do much either. But most of those 'horrible things' have literally nothing to do with Cedar Point at all. It was just bad timing." Sam laughed as he went to grab her hands.

"Uh uh." Mercedes yanked her hands away from his. "Don't touch me. Why are you trying to undermine everything I'm saying to you right now?"

"Mercedes I told you." Sam tried to move closer to have, only to have her move away from him. "I'm sorry, okay? It's not that I'm purposefully trying to compromise how you feel. It's just that I don't want you to think that something bad always has to happen. I don't want you to get mad or upset or anything either."

"I'm not mad, Sam. I'm not exactly upset either, but I just really don't want to go." She walked to him this time.

Sam slowly went to grab her hands, waiting to see whether or not she would pull away again. When she didn't he took her hands and kissed them. "Nothing's going to happen. All those other times, there was just something that wasn't right. But now, everything's right. And I mean everything. Ok?"

"Okay."

"Okay?" Sam smiled.

"Okay." Mercedes smiled back.

"I'm gonna kiss you now, okay?"

"Okay."

Before their lips could touch, there was a knock at the door.

"So, you guys kind of have four starving little monsters downstairs who are all screaming something about a buffalo chicken pizza. You might want to quit it with the lip locking." Jay stood beside the door as Mercedes rolled her eyes and led Sam out of the door. "Wait. Are you making buffalo chicken pizza tonight? Because there's no way in hell I'm going back to my place if that's what's waiting for me here." He followed them out of the door and down the stairs. "I'm serious. Your buffalo chicken pizza is pretty much magic, sis." They got to the foot of the stairs and Mercedes turned around to look at her brother, who shrugged. "What can I say? it speaks to my soul."

Mercedes didn't say anything. She just looked at him, rolled her eyes again, and walked into the kitchen. Sam noticed the puzzling look on Jay's face and motioned for him to come to the living room and sit down. "She's a little dissatisfied with you right now."

"I get that much." Jay pursed his lips in the way Mercedes did just a few seconds ago.

"Okay. I'm going to say this slowly so that you don't ask me to say it again." Sam took a deep breath. "I might have let the whole Cedar Point thing slip."

Jay stood up. "You did _what_, Sam?"

"What the hell, Jay? I literally just told you I didn't want you to do that."

"Yeah, well, when you blurt out something that was supposed to be a secret, I can do whatever I want. You know this trip was supposed to be a surprise."

"What did you want me to do, man? Just keep it a secret? You know she figures everything out. I can't keep a secret from her. I don't know why you even told me in the first place."

"I told you so that you could make sure she did make any plans, _man_. Now she's going to be pessimistic about the whole trip."

"She said she's not going."

"Oh no. She's going. You can bet your ass she's going. If I have to drag her there myself." Jay looked at his watch.

Sam laughed. If there was one thing he quickly learned about the Jones family, it was that when they wanted something, they went for it. "Look, I'm still trying to convince her that it won't be so bad. We don't need to trick her to get her to go. I've got this. Just trust me."

Jay narrowed his eyes as he looked at Sam. "Alright, fine. But pessimistic or not, she's going to that park this weekend." Jay looked at Sam, who looked back at him. "How you feeling after our talk earlier?"

Sam exhaled. "I'm feeling better. Mercedes said she could help me out if I needed it."

"Oh, I almost forgot." Jay interrupted. "If your siblings need to stay here, we've got the space, man. Our home is yours. Don't forget that."

"Well, first of all, Jay, it's not your home. You don't live here anymore, remember?" Mercedes appeared suddenly in the doorframe. She sat beside Sam and took his hand in hers. "Second of all, I already told him that. Whatever he needs, we're here."

"Thanks, but this was my moment. You guys already had your moment." Jay smiled, glad to see his sister decided to forget about the whole Cedar Point thing. "I thought you were making pizza."

Mercedes chuckled. "I am. I've got the 'starving little monsters' in the kitchen helping me. They can't make a pizza dough for shit."

All three of them laughed. Jay asked Sam how the glee club meeting went.

"It went strangely well. I told everyone that there were some things going on with my dad, and they all completely understood Nobody asked any questions or anything. And this week's assignment is revival, so Mercedes and I are going to sing something."

"That's good. That's good, right? Like what I said worked?"

"Yeah, worked great." Sam looked at Mercedes, waiting for her to ask something.

"Ok, so what exactly did you say to him, Jay?" There it was.

"Alright." Jay got up from his seat. "Who's ready for some buffalo chicken pizza, huh? I'm starving. Haven't eaten since breakfast. You ready, Sam?"

"Buffalo chicken pizza?" Sam stood up as well. "Hell yeah I'm ready." He tugged Mercedes up with him. "Come on, babe."

"Whoa, wait." Mercedes looked at her brother and boyfriend who were still walking. "So no one's gonna tell me what was said earlier? Are you guys serious?" Sam kissed her hand, but said nothing.


	7. How Do You Do It? Pt II

Stacy Evans- Sasha Pieterse

Stevie Evans- Cody Simpson

* * *

Mercedes walked in the door to her house. Once she and Sam left the school, they went to go get some ingredients for Mercedes to make dinner tonight. Her mother made an emergency business trip to Chicago, and her dad said that he had to stay at the office, which meant she would have to watch her sisters for the night. Sam asked if he and his siblings could stay over. Mercedes said that she didn't mind, but he needed to check with his mom to make sure she was ok to stay by herself with Dwight.

"She'll be fine. I... might've asked her if we could stay already. But, that's no big deal. What are we eating tonight?" Sam asked while carrying the groceries. "You never told me."

"Don't worry about it. I'm not even starting on it yet." Mercedes was walking through her house and still couldn't see all of the little siblings. She asked Jeremy to pick them up from after-school, and he told her that they had gotten home about an hour ago. "Go ahead and put the stuff away. I'm going to go find the kids."

"Hey, wait." Sam called her back to him.

"Yeah?"

"Gimme a smooch." He puckered his lips.

Mercedes smiled as she put her hand on his shoulder, brought him down to her level, and gave him a peck on the cheek. When she started to walk away, Sam quickly put the groceries down and turned her around to plant a kiss on her lips. "That's what you call a smooch, sweetheart." He turned around and picked up the groceries before heading into the kitchen.

Mercedes laughed and she went to find everybody. Her first thought was to check the game room, but it was silent in there, so she didn't bother looking. She checked outside next, then in her little sisters' rooms, and then in her room. She was about to check the game room when she heard a giggle in her bathroom. She went into her bathroom and saw someone's shadow. It must've been Stacy, because whoever this was had her hair in a ponytail, and neither of her sisters left the house in a ponytail that morning. Mercedes pretended that she didn't see the 8 year old. "Hmm... it seems like I heard something here in my bathroom, but I don't see anything." She heard another giggle. "Did it come from the cabinet?" Mercedes opened the cabinet and listened for another giggle. Once she heard it, she continued. "Or is it under the sink?" Another giggle. "I know." Mercedes gasped. "The giggle came from..." She walked over to the shower curtain as if she was about to pull it back, and turned around at the last second. "the toilet!" Instead of a giggle this time, what she heard was a full blown cackle. Mercedes knew for sure that it was Stacy now. "Wait a minute. That sounded like it came from..." Mercedes pulled back the shower curtain to reveal Stacy looking up at her. "There's my girl!" Mercedes picked Stacy up and spun her around before putting her down. "Why were you hiding in my bathroom?" Mercedes smiled at the little girl.

Stacy broke into laughter before she could answer the question. "It was Jay's idea. He said we should hide until you and Sammy got here."

"So everybody's just hiding? All over the house?"

Stacy frowned. "Except for Stevie. He said he didn't want to. He's in the game room."

"No, he wasn't. I didn't hear anything when I went by the game room. I didn't think anybody was in there. How about you just take me to everybody else. We'll find him soon enough. Come on." Mercedes grabbed Stacy's hand and followed her to find everyone.

Sam finished putting the groceries away and went into the game room to look for Stevie. The game room was Stevie's favorite place in the Jones residence. Besides the kitchen, that is. Instead of finding Stevie playing with the various xboxes or playstations that there were, he found him sitting in one of the bean bags. That's all he was doing. Sam went and sat beside his little brother and tousled his hair. "What's up, champ?"

Stevie just sat there. "Nothing much."

Sam frowned. Stevie didn't act like this. "You sure, Steve-o?"

Stevie jumped up and grabbed a couple of controllers. "Yeah, sure. Let's play something." Stevie handed his brother the controller and turned on the tv. Once the game started, Stevie talked. "So, uh... Mercedes. You're dating her now?"

Sam could tell that Stevie was trying to distract him, but he answered anyways. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Jeremy told us. Stacy and Ayana thought you guys were already dating."

"No way. Did they really?"

Stevie chuckled. "Yeah, really. It's not that hard to believe. You guys are kind of always falling over one another."

"What?" Was all Sam could say before he was tackled by someone. "Stevie!" Sam shouted. "Stevie! Pause the game!"

Stevie laughed. "No thanks bro. It's not like you were gonna win anyways.

Sam figured out that all of the little sisters were attacking him, so he knew Mercedes had to be around somewhere. "Cedes! Help!" The girls weren't doing anything, they were just laying on him. But when you have 3 girls laying on you, not moving at all, it's pretty hard to get up. He heard Mercedes' laughter, which pretty much meant she wasn't helping anytime soon. "Girls, please. Please let me up." Sam begged and pleaded, but the girls wouldn't budge. Sam decided it was time to bring out the big guns. "Well, I guess that since we can't let poor ol' Sammy up, we'll just have to miss out on Cedar Point this weekend!"

Sam immediately felt like he could breathe again. The girls were screaming a mix of "Cedar Point?", "We're so sorry!", "We wanna go to Cedar Point!", Things of the like.

"Cedar Point?" Mercedes asked, confused. "Since when are we going to Cedar Point?" She put her hands on her hips as she walked into the room.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. Since a few months ago maybe? I forgot exactly what Jay said."

"Jay told you this?" Mercedes looked at Sam waiting on a response. He didn't answer. "Did he?" Mercedes barked.

Sam shrugged again. "I don't know." He spoke softly as he avoided Mercedes' gaze. "It could've been him. It could've been somebody else. I just know so many people, you know? It's hard to tell exactly who it is that told me that. Then again, it might not even be us going to Cedar Point. You know that? It could actually be somebody totally different and I just-"

"Alright, everybody. Here's what we're going to do. I want you guys to go and wash your hands, you're going to help me make dinner. That sound good?" Mercedes talked to the children.

They all agreed and began walking out of the room while Stevie asked what they were having. Mercedes went over to him and whispered something to him. Stevie grinned from ear to ear. "Buffalo chicken pizza!" He exclaimed. All the kids dashed off to the bathroom to wash their hands, and Same tried to follow.

Since Mercedes was standing at the door again, she caught Sam trying to leave and put her hand on his chest, stopping him. "And just where in the hell do you think you're going, Mr. 'I Just Know So Many People'?"

"Well.. You told them to... Buffalo chicken pizza." Sam answered sheepishly.

Mercedes shook her head. "No. We're not done talking. What did my brother say to you about Cedar Point?"

"Mercedes," Sam stepped closer to her. "It's a two-hour drive."

Mercedes snapped. "I _know_ it's a two-hour drive I always get carsick on said drive. Do I not?"

"Yes, but my mom has this new anti-motion sickness medicine. She told me to give to you because it really works. I mean, I left it at home this morning but you know that I wasn't exactly thinking about some medicine at the point-"

"Sam! Listen to me. I don't care if it's a two-hour drive or a two-minute drive. I don't care if I get car sick. Everytime I go to Cedar Point, something bad happens and it pretty much ruins my whole trip. I'm not going." Mercedes crossed her arms and looked at her boyfriend.

Sam kept walking towards Mercedes. "Cedes, it's not that bad."

"Oh, really? Well let's see." Mercedes began to count on her fingers. I was 3 the first time I went. As soon as I got there, I got some weird bird flu thing from the people who worked there."

"Oh, please. Mercedes, there were like 50 other people that got that same 'flu'. That doesn't count."

"Ok. I was 5 and 7 the next times. Food poisoning _both_ times, Sam. Both times! When I was 10, I had a broken leg-"

"That you broke during gymnastics, Mercedes. Has nothing to do with Cedar Point."

"Which has _everything_ to do with Cedar Point because do you know what you can do at Cedar Point with a broken leg? Not a lot. When I was 12, I got my fucking period, Sam. Who does that ever even happen to?"

"Pretty much every woman gets their period, Mercedes."

"No, Sam. What woman gets her period in the middle of the summer at an amusement park with her best friend, who is a _dude_. Then, at 15, I was carsick the whole ride there and back, and I got a migraine that lasted nearly the whole time, and I was really dehydrated."

"Yeah, babe. I do. In case you forgot, I not only kept your hair out of your puke, but I stayed in the condo thing with you the whole time. I didn't do much either. But most of those 'horrible things' have literally nothing to do with Cedar Point at all. It was just bad timing." Sam laughed as he went to grab her hands.

"Uh uh." Mercedes yanked her hands away from his. "Don't touch me. Why are you trying to undermine everything I'm saying to you right now?"

"Mercedes I told you." Sam tried to move closer to have, only to have her move away from him. "I'm sorry, okay? It's not that I'm purposefully trying to compromise how you feel. It's just that I don't want you to think that something bad always has to happen. I don't want you to get mad or upset or anything either."

"I'm not mad, Sam. I'm not exactly upset either, but I just really don't want to go." She walked to him this time.

Sam slowly went to grab her hands, waiting to see whether or not she would pull away again. When she didn't he took her hands and kissed them. "Nothing's going to happen. All those other times, there was just something that wasn't right. But now, everything's right. And I mean everything. Ok?"

"Okay."

"Okay?" Sam smiled.

"Okay." Mercedes smiled back.

"I'm gonna kiss you now, okay?"

"Okay."

Before their lips could touch, there was a knock at the door.

"So, you guys kind of have four starving little monsters downstairs who are all screaming something about a buffalo chicken pizza. You might want to quit it with the lip locking." Jay stood beside the door as Mercedes rolled her eyes and led Sam out of the door. "Wait. Are you making buffalo chicken pizza tonight? Because there's no way in hell I'm going back to my place if that's what you're making." He followed them out of the door and down the stairs. "I'm serious. Your buffalo chicken pizza is pretty much magic, sis." They got to the foot of the stairs and Mercedes turned around to look at her brother, who shrugged. "What can I say? it speaks to my soul."

Mercedes didn't say anything. She just looked at him, rolled her eyes again, and walked into the kitchen. Sam noticed the puzzling look on Jay's face and motioned for him to come to the living room and sit down. "She's a little dissatisfied with you right now."

"I get that much." Jay pursed his lips in the way Mercedes did just a few seconds ago.

"Okay. I'm going to say this slowly so that you don't ask me to say it again." Sam took a deep breath. "I might have let the whole Cedar Point thing slip."

Jay stood up. "You did _what_, Sam?"

"What the hell, Jay? I literally just told you I didn't want you to do that."

"Yeah, well, when you blurt out something that was supposed to be a secret, I can do whatever I want. You know this trip was supposed to be a surprise."

"What did you want me to do, Jeremy? Just keep it a secret? You know she figures everything out. I can't keep a secret from her. I don't know why you even told me in the first place."

"I told you so that you could make sure she did make any plans, man. Now she's going to be pessimistic about the whole trip."

"She said she's not going."

"Oh no. She's going. You can bet your ass she's going. If I have to drag her there myself." Jay looked at his watch.

Sam laughed. If there was one thing he quickly learned about the Jones family, it was that when they wanted something, they went for it. "Look, I'm still trying to convince her that it won't be so bad. We don't need to trick her to get her to go. I've got this. Just trust me."

Jay narrowed his eyes as he looked at Sam. "Alright, fine. But pessimistic or not, she's going to that park this weekend." Jay looked at Sam, who looked back at him. "How you feeling after our talk earlier?"

Sam exhaled. I'm feeling better. Mercedes said she could help me out if I needed it."

"Oh, I almost forgot." Jay interrupted. "If your siblings need to stay here, we've got the space, man. Our home is yours. Don't forget that."

"Well, first of all, Jay, it's not your home. You don't live here anymore, remember?" Mercedes appeared suddenly in the doorframe. She sat beside Sam and took his hand in hers. "Second of all, I already told him that. Whatever he needs, we're here."

"Thanks, sis, but this was my moment. You guys already had your moment." Jay smiled, glad to see his sister decided to forget about the whole Cedar Point thing. "I thought you were making pizza."

Mercedes chuckled. "I am. I've got the 'starving little monsters' in the kitchen helping me. They can't make a pizza dough for shit."

All three of them laughed. Jay asked Sam how the glee club meeting went.

"It went strangely well. I told everyone that there were some things going on with my dad, and they all completely understood. Nobody asked any questions or anything."

"That's good. That's good, right? Like what I said worked?"

"Yeah, worked great." Sam looked at Mercedes, waiting for her to ask something.

"Ok, so what exactly did you say to him, Jay?" There it was.

"Alright." Jay got up from his seat. "Who's ready for some buffalo chicken pizza, huh? I'm starving. Haven't eaten since breakfast. You ready, Sam?"

"Buffalo chicken pizza?" Sam stood up as well. "Hell yeah I'm ready." He tugged Mercedes up with him. "Come on, babe."

"Whoa, wait." Mercedes looked at her brother and boyfriend who were still walking. "So no one's gonna tell me what was said earlier? Are you guys serious?" Sam kissed her hand, but said nothing.

* * *

_A few hours later_

Sam put his arm around Mercedes and kissed her. They had just said goodbye to Jeremy, who stayed to help them wash dishes while the kids watched a movie. "I'm glad you let us stay over tonight." He whispered.

Mercedes looked up at him and smiled. "I'm glad you asked. If we're being honest, I probably would've asked if you hadn't first."

"Well, If I hadn't figured that you wanted me too, I wouldn't have asked."

"Yeah, true. But I wouldn't have wanted you to if you were such an awesome boyfriend."

"Is this a compliment challenge? Because I can assure you, I have many, many compliments I could give you. Don't start something you can't finish."

Mercedes smiled "Boy, you don't want none of this."

Sam whispered in her ear. "I'll show you what I want some of."

"Don't even think about it."

Sam feigned innocence. "Think about what, sweetheart?"

"About s-e-x."

Sam chuckled. "Mercedes the youngest one of these kids is 7. They can spell stuff in a heartbeat. So if you're trying to say something and you don't want them to know what it is, don't say it."

"Doesn't matter whether I say it or not. None of the people in this room are doing it any time soon."

"Oh, come on. Why not?"

"Because I said so." Mercedes said with annoyance in her voice.

"Really, Mercedes? Look, I want this whole relationship thing just as much as you do. You know that. I'm not going to pressure you into anything you don't want to do. You know that as well. But if you seriously think we're going to be able to hold on for much longer," Sam smiled and chuckled again. "Let's just say I don't think we're going to be able to hold off on releasing the 'sexual tension' much long-"

"Listen, Sam. I told you what I thought about the situation. If I say we're not doing it, then we're not. Leave it the hell alone." Mercedes said angrily, nipping it in the bud.

Sam froze. Even though Mercedes was whispering, she had a harsh voice. Sam thought about saying something, but decided it was best to keep quiet.

A few minutes later, Mercedes shot up from the couch and went upstairs toward her room. Sam headed to her room not long after. Once he got to her room, he found her standing at her dresser. Sam didn't know what she was doing because her back was to him, but he could tell that she wasn't happy with him. He could feel it. "Whatever I did, Mercy-"

"How are you okay right now?" If Mercedes had been any quieter, Sam wouldn't have heard her.

Sam expected for her to be pissed at him, but she didn't sound like it. Sam just stood there, silent. He didn't really know what to say.

Good thing was, he didn't need to. Mercedes said it for him. "You just found out your dad relapsed." She turned to Sam. Her eyes were pooled with tears. "Not twelve hours ago, you couldn't comprehend anything about the situation. You didn't understand at all. How are you not hurt and pissed and upset and frustrated? Hell, I feel all those things and I haven't lived with the man for 16 fucking years!"

Sam sighed as he went over to his girlfriend and wrapped her in his arms. "I'm sorry, sugar. I didn't know you felt that way. Of course I feel hurt and pissed and upset and frustrated. I feel all those things and more, but I'm making a way of not being put down by it." She snaked her arms around him and he continued. "It's okay to be upset, Mercy. You've known him for almost just as long as I have. He's your dad too. I know. But don't let it get to you. You just have to shake it off. Well, kind of. I know it sounds crazy, but it works if you try hard enough." He brought her over to her bed and sat down. holding her hands. "Think about it. We've got all these other people around who love us. Both of us together have 4 little siblings They look up to us, you know. And they have to find out soon. How can they keep it together if we can't?"

Mercedes sniffed as she listened to Sam. "I guess you're right. It's just hard to figure out. We've known each other for so long it starts to feel like we're the same person. We do everything together. Well, almost everything. But our whole existence could almost be merged into one, Sam. I don't know. Maybe I'm just PMSing or something." They both laughed at that. "I want things to go back to normal."

"Well. aside from this," Sam motioned between them. "It all will soon. But I think we've got something good going for us here."

"Of course you do, Sam. All relationships have a good thing going for them in the beginning. We have to wait at least six months to know whether or not we can actually be something."

"Six months? Mercedes we've known each other for forever. You just said so. I think we'll know a lot sooner than six months. We already love one another as friends. More like brother and sister. We have a weird incestial relationship when you think about it. Those always take off fast."

Mercedes busted out laughing. "I am NOT in an incestial relationship with you. What does _incestial_ even mean? I mean I know what it means. But where in the hell did you get that word from?"

"You know. Incestial. Like, incest, brothers and sisters, doing the thing."

Mercedes put her hand on Sam's chest. "Okay, Sam. You can stop now. I know what incest is. I also know that what we have is nothing like that. Don't ask me how I know. I just know." Mercedes paused. "You know what else I know? The musical production this year is Grease... you should really try out for Danny. I'm trying out for Sandy. It would look great on a college application, you know. Auditions are in a few weeks. If you want, I can work with you on an audition song."

Sam shook his head. "No way, Mercedes. I'm not trying out. Not for the lead, at least."

"Why not, Sam? You're one of the best guys in there."

"Exactly. _One_ of the best. Not the best. Blaine's sure to get the lead. Kurt would get it if he wasn't... Kurt. Plus, if, by some complete coincidence, Blaine doesn't get the part, Finn's next in line. Mr. Schue knows who's best. That's the guys. With the girls, you, Rachel, and Santana are it. Not in any particular order, of course. But it's hard for the guys. Most of us can't do what the girls can."

"Please." Mercedes looked at Sam with puppy dog eyes. "At least try." She got no response. "Whatever. I'm going to take a shower. We'll start looking at songs after the game tomorrow. We won't win, so no one's going to go to Breadstix-"

"How do you know we're not going to win tomorrow?" Sam exclaimed.

Mercedes looked at him with a 'you know why' look. "You're playing Lincoln. Lincoln versus Mckinley. Let's just say that schools only play as good as the president they're named after. And Lincoln freed the slaves. Sounds like a damn good president to me." Mercedes kissed him and got off of the bed. "I'm going to take a shower. You can take one downstairs. You'll be done before me, so tell the kids I said goodnight and I love them. Meet you back up here in 45 minutes."

Before Mercedes could get to the bathroom, sam rose up from the bed. "Whoa, wait just a minute. We're sleeping in the same bed? I know we've done it before, but do you really think that's a good idea? I mean, because we kiss now. And kissing leads to touching and touching leads to..." He made weird motions with his hands. "Other things."

"I'm not having sex with you, Sam. If that's what you're thinking. I have a little something called self control."

"Yeah, Cedes. You might. But I'm what you call a teenage guy. And you like to wear short shorts and tank tops to sleep and this," He pointed downwards. "This is a lot to control. Especially as a teenage guy."

Mercedes chuckled. "Ok, Sam. Here's what's going to happen. First, you're going to stop making sexual references with your hands. I'm going to go take a shower. You are going to go and tell our little siblings to get their butts to bed, you're going to take a shower. Then, you are going to come back up to this room and get into this bed with me. Understood?"

Sam nodded meekly.

"Great. Now, go. You've got a long day tomorrow, and my dad's going to be back with Prince tomorrow morning and we need to be out by the time he gets here." With that, Mercedes went into her bathroom and closed her door.

Sam groaned. He went downstairs to do as he was told.

* * *

Mercedes turned the lamp off and the T.V. on. Sam always needed it on in order to sleep. She didn't mind. He'd always been that way. She turned over to face Sam and put her head on her pillows with a sigh. "It's been a long day, huh?"

Sam looked back at her and nodded.

"Stop it, Sam. It's alright. You can talk to me."

"Well, to put it quite simply, between your father and your dog, I don't I don't feel like we should be doing this." Sam said sarcastically.

"We're not doing anything. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Mercedes you can tell me as many times as you want. I'm still going to feel the way I feel."

"Fine, then." Mercedes got out from under the covers. "I'll just go sleep in Jay's room."

Sam shot up. "What? No, Cedes. What are you doing?"

"Well, you're not sleeping anywhere but here." Mercedes looked at Sam and put her hands on her hips. "Do you want to challenge what I say right now? Because I'll let you know this. There is only one thing that will prevent us from sleeping together, and that is me sleeping downstairs in my brother's room. So you tell me. What's it gonna be?"

Sam sighed. He knew he was defeated. "Fine. But I'm not going to touch you or look at you for too long or lay to close to you-"

"Or shut the hell up." Mercedes walked back to her side of the bed and got in once again. "You don't have to worry about controlling yourself, Sam. Believe me, I have enough control to last the both of us a lifetime. So, I'm going to kiss you, and you're going to kiss me back. What we do is what we do. We won't be having sex. I'll make sure of that." Mercedes slowly leaned over as she spoke and kissed Sam gently.

"I love you." Sam spat out. Seeing Mercedes' face, he said something else. "Friend-wise. As always."

Mercedes smiled. "Yeah, I know. You tell me you love me every night, remember? And every night, it's friend-wise."

"That's great and all," Sam said awkwardly. "But will we know when it isn't friend-wise?"

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it." Mercedes turned over on her side and closed her eyes. "Goodnight, Sam."

Sam was so lost in his thoughts that he forgot to say anything back. How would he know when they meant it in _that_ way? How would he know that his love for her wasn't friend-wise? "Goodnight, Mercy." Sam closed his eyes, but his thoughts wouldn't stop for a while.

* * *

Ok, everyone. That's it! i hope you guys enjoyed. I tried really hard to remember word-for-word as much as possible. There are some things I'm missing. I can feel it. But, it's a chapter nonetheless. So tell me what you guys think! When _will_ Samcedes be able to differentiate between friend love and love love? Do you think they might already love love one another? And for those of you who may or may not have noticed, the Joneses do, indeed have a dog, whom I have named after the one and only Prince Rogers Nelson, may he rest in peace. You guys know the drill. Review, review, review! I absolutely LOVE reading all your reviews and knowing what you think. Don't be shy!


	8. Rude Awakening

Larissa Smith- Kathryn Newton

Diane Jones- Alfre Woodard

* * *

Two weeks later

"Are you ready?" Mercedes looked up at Sam, who had his hands over his eyes.

Sam smiled. "Hell yeah. I'm pretty sure I know what it is. You're not that good at surprises."

Mercedes slapped her boyfriend on the shoulder. "Be quiet, boy. I can plan a damn good surprise. You have no idea what it is."

"Ok, then. Let's make a bet." Sam put on his thinking face. "Hmm. If I'm wrong about the surprise, you have to serenade me in glee club tomorrow."

"Ok. And if I'm wrong about the surprise, you have to try out for the lead in Grease and you have to cook me something. Something delicious. And I mean so delicious, it'll make me want to marry you."

"Okay. It's a bet. Can I take my hands off of my face now?"

Mercedes laughed. "Yeah go ahead."

Sam removed his hands from his face and put them to his side as he saw his truck in what looked like perfect condition. "Mercedes." He gasped. "Mercedes." That was all he could say.

"The day you told me about your dad, I called my brother and told him about your truck. He was happy to help out. It's free. You don't need to do anything or pay anything. It's on the house. Or on the garage. I don't know which one would be technically correct."

"Mercedes."

"Yeah, I know your dad isn't exactly in as bad of a shape as he was a few weeks ago, but we're still here if you need anything."

"Thank you." Sam bent down and kissed her on the forehead before putting his arm around her. "Look at that. Isn't she a beaut?"

Mercedes guffawed. "Boy just drive us to school. My dad's gonna be home soon." She held out the keys for Sam to take.

"Don't mind if I do." Sam walked to the truck and opened the door for Mercedes. "M'lady." Mercedes buckled as she got in, and Sam went to the driver's side and got in.

Mercedes stood at her locker to wait for Sam. He was supposed to walk with her to the library so that they could get some studying in for Sam's test in a few days. If he didn't do well on this test, he could be in danger of losing his spot on the football team again. She looked at her watch again before she heard footsteps. "You're finally here. I thought I was going to have to hunt you down." She smiled as she looked up, but her smiled soon faded.

"I'd never make you hunt me down. You know that."

Mercedes turned around and started walking.

"Where you going? We both have free period right now. Where you headed?"

"Where

_I'm_going is my business. But you can go to hell, Shane."

Shane started to walk behind her. "That's not a very nice thing to say."

Mercedes turned around and glared at the boy in front of her. "Shane it would be in your best interest to leave me alone. I'm not in the mood right now."

"Are you still upset about what I told you? It's not like I'm not trying to tear you and lover boy apart. I'm just telling the truth."

Mercedes wanted to walk away so badly. But she didn't really understand what Shane said that day. "And exactly what is the truth, Shane?"

"That Sam has another girlfriend that he never told you about. And that they're still together."

"How are they still together when, one, I've been with him almost everyday for the past month, and two, Sam came to me and asked me out?"

"Like that even matters."

"It does matter, Shane. Plus, Sam's not that kind of guy. He doesn't just go around and get with everybody because he feels like it. He's actually considerate of other people's feelings."

"Oh, don't do that. Let's not talk about why we even broke up in the first place."

"Yeah, let's not because it doesn't matter. I already told you I'm with Sam, so whatever little stunt you're trying to pull to break us apart, it's not working." Mercedes said sternly while putting her finger in Shane's face. She continued to glare at Shane in hopes that Sam would come by and beat him up.

Before Sam could come, a sly smirk came to Shane's face. "You still haven't told him, have you?"

Mercedes rolled her eyes, her defense weakening. Shane figured her out. "Doesn't matter. What I do or don't tell him is between me and him."

Shane started to chuckle. "You haven't told him. He doesn't know that you know, does he?"

"Shane, I'm going to tell you this one last time. Leave me the hell alone."

"I'd do what she said if I were you." Sam's voice came from behind Shane. "I'd hate to beat your ass in this hallway, but I will most certainly do so.

"Finally." Mercedes said under her breath.

Shane turned around to face Sam. "Sup, Evans? I was just talking to Mercedes, my old pal here, about our previous sexual encounters. Would you like to join in the-" Shane was abruptly slammed up against the locker. He tried to talk, but he could barely breathe for Sam's hand around his throat.

"Look. I don't give a damn what you were talking about." Sam snarled. "When a woman tells you to leave, you leave. I'm getting real tired of your shit, Tinsley. I swear to god. Give me one more reason, and I'll beat you harder than a red-headed stepchild. Only reason I'm letting you live now is because I know Mercedes would try to stop me. But the second she's not there to see, it's your ass. From now on, you don't touch her, you don't speak to her, you don't look at her, and you better not even breathe on her. Understood?"

"Sam," Mercedes' voice sounded frightened. "Let him go. He can't breathe!"

"I'm not letting him go until he agrees to my terms."

Shane tried again to speak, but nothing came out. He was finally able to croak out a simple "Ok."

Sam still held Shane to the locker, so Mercedes tried to pull Sam off of Shane slightly. "Sam, he agreed. Just let him go, please."

Sam gave Shane one last threatening look before finally letting him go. "Stay away from my girl, Shane."

"Keep your hands off of me Evans. Or the next time you step to me, I might actually fight back, in which case, I'll squish your ass." Shane fixed his shirt and walked away from the couple.

Sam lunged at Shane, only to be held back by arm's that were a lot stronger than Mercedes'. When Sam turned around, he saw Puck, who he'd forgotten about.

"Just let him go, dude. He's not worth it. At least not today." Puck spoke to Sam before glancing at Mercedes. "Besides, looks like you've got bigger problems. See you at practice, bro." Puck put his hand on Sam's shoulder as he walked away.

Sam walked over to his girlfriend. Mercedes could tell he was about to say something, but she needed to clear things up first. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that he was making you uncomfortable."

"Well, He's been making me uncomfortable for the past month. That's nothing new. What did you hear?" It started to sound like Mercedes was interrogating Sam.

"All I heard was you telling him to leave you alone, okay? That's it." Sam threw his hands up, signaling his innocence. "I swear-"

"Stop it."

"Shit. Ok. I promise." Sam corrected himself. Mercedes always hated it when he said 'I swear'. "I promise you I didn't hear anything else. Believe me, if I had, I would've made sure he got what he deserved."

"Yeah whatever." Mercedes said annoyingly.

"What's wrong? I didn't mean to swear, Mercy. It's just that 'He Whom Shall Not Be Named' just makes me so angry. He gets under my skin."

Mercedes scratched the back of her neck. "It's not that..."

"Then what is it? If it's about what I said to my brother this morning, then-"

"No, Sam. It's not that either. Although that was mean and I'm still kind of upset with you about that. Do you, by any chance, know a girl named-"

"Yo, Cedes. What up?" Santana walked up to her friend with a smile on her face. "So, Britts has some makeup work she has to do for her math class, which means I'm officially free for the whole period. Wanna work on audition songs?"

"Audition songs?" Sam asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure, Tana." Mercedes looked up at Sam. "Santana and I were planning to help one another with audition songs for the musical."

Sam looked at Mercedes, to Santana, the back to Mercedes. "I thought we were helping each other?"

Mercedes rolled her eyes. She could tell that Sam was getting jealous. "Well, since you haven't even made up your mind as to whether or not you're trying out yet, I went ahead and accepted Santana's offer of being her partner. Should you decide that you want to audition, I can help you a little if you'd like, but Santana's my #1 priority when it comes to the musical right now."

"Mercedes, you knew I planned on auditioning." Sam said annoyingly.

"It doesn't matter what the hell I knew, Sam. You never once asked me to be your partner or even hear a song of yours. I'm going to go with Santana, I'll wait for you outside the locker room next period to walk to glee." Mercedes looked at Sam, expecting him to walk away.

Instead of walking away, Sam continued to look at Mercedes with his arms crossed.

Mercedes turned to Santana while still looking at Sam. "Go ahead to the auditorium. I'll be there in a sec."

"Alright. Don't be too long. A duet will only get us the roles if we've actually practiced prior to the audition. Don't take long. Later, Trouty." Santana sauntered away.

After Santana walked away, Mercedes spoke up. "I'm not going to do this with you right now, Sam. I already told you, Santana and I need to practice. You can study on your own. You've done it before. When you get done with football and I get done with cheer, I'll wait outside of the boys locker room. But now, I have to go."

"You were going to ask me about Larissa Smith, weren't you?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Does matter."

"It doesn't-"

"Yeah, Mercedes," Sam raised his voice. "It does matter! You're going to keep blowing it off and you're not going to bring it up until you're forced to, and then it's going to be a bigger deal than it needs to be. You have to tell me when something's on your mind now, Mercedes. We're in an actual relationship. We're not just best friends. And I don't mean everything, everything. But if it's something pertaining to our relationship, our romantic relationship, it needs to be out in the open as soon as possible. Larissa was a little fling that I thought about before I came to you. She's not a factor in my life anymore. I broke things off with her before it even started. You're who I'm with now, alright?" Sam waited to see how Mercedes would react to everything he said.

Mercedes stood there for a minute, watching Sam watch her. "Fine. As long as you promise me that, whoever this Larissa chick is, she won't come between us."

"I'll do you one better." Sam took her hands in his and kissed them. "No one. And I mean no one, is going to come between us. How's that for a promise?"

Mercedes smiled shyly. "I guess that's pretty okay."

Sam laughed "Oh, you guess that's pretty okay? Well I guess you better be waiting outside that locker room when practice gets over with."

They both laughed and shared a kiss, reconciled, and went their separate ways.

Mercedes walked down the hallway to the auditorium, where Santana was waiting for her. When Santana asked Mercedes what Sam's problem was, Mercedes sighed. "I don't know. You know Larissa Smith, right? Girl from VA?"

"Yeah. She's like the best at everything. She's also captain of the Xplosives."

"Oh, God. Please don't remind me." Mercedes said. The Xplosives were Carmel High's cheer squad. They had also been rivals of the Cheerios for as long as anyone could remember. "Anyways, she and Sam were together for like 5 minutes before Sam asked me out. Sam didn't even think to tell me."

"I don't mean to interrupt, but I've got some Doritos if you want some."

"Of course I do." Mercedes reached into the bag of chips that were sitting in between her and Santana. "Now, back to my story. I only found out because Shane decided to tell me in an effort to break Sam and I apart."

"Which, I'm guessing didn't work?"

"You're guessing right. Only problem is, I kept the fact that I knew about it from Sam until just now. Sam tried to convince me that it was nothing and I went along with it as I should, you know?"

Santana nodded in agreement. "Yeah, totally. I mean, think about it. You don't want to tell him you don't believe his bullshit. You want to let him think that you totally agree and then expose him for the lying bastard he may or may not be. I completely understand."

Mercedes laughed. "No, Santana. It's just that I don't want to believe him so readily, you know? If there's one thing Shane Tinsley doesn't do, it's lie. I mean the boy's like, Abe Lincoln or something. He a damn saint when it comes to telling the truth. It's hard to compete with something like that. If Sam truly wants me to believe him, he'll try his hardest to prove it to me. So, naturally, I put two and two together. If I just watch both of them really closely, I'll eventually figure out who the liar is."

"Why don't you just ask Larissa herself?"

"Oh, hell to the no. I'm not asking that bitch anything. You got anything to drink?"

Santana chuckled as she pulled a bottle of water out of her bag. "My girl. I must've really been teaching you some stuff, huh?"

"Yeah, you have. Except for the lying bastard thing. I'm not that cruel yet."

"Sure..." Santana looked away.

"I think that I'm just going to try to believe Sam. I really care about him and I don't want us to be over yet. What we have feels really good. Like, really, really good." Mercedes looked down at the ground with a cheesy grin on her face.

"Holy shit." Santana looked at her friend with a smile on her face. "You love him, don't you?"

"Of course I love him." Mercedes said obviously. "He was my first friend. We've been best friends for as long as I can remember."

"Uh uh. I mean like lovey-dovey love him. Like Trouty-I-love-you-and-I-wanna-have-your-babies love him."

"What?" Mercedes smiled as she felt her face heat up. "No I do not. We just got together."

"That doesn't mean anything. You can still love him. It's just a thing, you know? I love Brittany."

"Yeah, but you and Brittany have been together for like, ever. Even when you weren't in a relationship, you were in a relationship. You guys are like lesbian soul sisters slash lovers slash everything else. You guys were practically made for each other."

"And? Who's to say that you and Trouty weren't made for each other? Even though you guys haven't always been 'together' together, whenever someone looks at you guys, it looks like you've been in a relationship for 30 years. Whenever you talk about him, your eyes light up. Plus, you always get that grin. The cutesy lovey grin. Only other people you've ever used that grin on are little kids. And you guys could stay on the phone all night reading the phone book to one another-"

"Ew, really? Who even reads the phone book anymore?"

"That's the point. You guys can take something that is completely bland or doesn't matter and turn it into something beautiful. Even before you guys got together. If you ask me, it really sounds like you two have the love bug."

Mercedes was at a loss for words. Santana was right. If someone gave it enough thought, she and Sam have always had a special relationship. She never really gave it much thought because she naturally assumed that Sam wasn't attracted to her. "Maybe you're right. But honestly, I just want to focus on what we've got right now and figure out this whole Larissa thing. I also want to focus on Sandra Dee. So get off your ass and come sing this song with me." Mercedes got up and held out her hand for Santana to take.

Santana took Mercedes' offered hand with a smile on her face. "Yeah, you're right. We're gonna kick Berry's ass if we pull this song off."

"I mean, obviously." Mercedes smiled confidently.

* * *

"So you think Shane told her?" Puck asked as he finished stretching.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. He's pretty much the only person who would have a reason to." He was telling the glee guys on the football team about the thing with Mercedes and Larissa.

"Ok, but is it a definite thought or just a sneaking suspicion?" Mike asked from behind his locker door. "If you're not completely sure and Mercedes finds out you accused him of it, she'll be pissed."

"I'm not sure what it is, dude." Sam was frustrated. "That's the point. I just have to figure out what he knows."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Finn stepped out of the shower stall. "If you can't stand to be in the same room as Shane, how are you gonna figure it out?"

"I don't know, alright? Look, I'm just going to watch and listen. Mercedes will never tell me herself. This is what's going to happen: We're not talking about this anymore and not a word of this conversation will be repeated anywhere outside of this locker room." Sam put an end to the conversation and walked out, where Mercedes was waiting on him. "Hello, beautiful."

Mercedes chuckled. "Why, hello, handsome." She went to him and sniffed his shirt. "You don't smell sweaty today. I'm surprised."

"Well, I have always been full of surprises. So I'm not surprised that you're surprised." He took her hand, kissed her, and walked towards the choir room.

"Whatever. You just be glad you don't smell like sweat. If you did, I wouldn't be walking next to you right now."

Sam gasped audibly. "I can not believe you just said that to me." He pretended to wipe away tears. "That was so hurtful."

"Maybe so, but you'll live." Mercedes kissed his hand and laughed.

They made their way into the choir room and sat down beside Kurt and Blaine. Kurt excused himself and scooted closer to Mercedes. "Santana told me about Larissa."

Mercedes looked at him before narrowing her eyes at Santana. She stood from her chair and brought Kurt up with her. "Over here. We can't do this with Sam sitting right there." She then looked at Santana again and motioned for her to come over to the window by Mr. Schue's office.

"I'm sorry, ok? I had to tell someone. You know I can't keep a secret." Santana said unapologetically.

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Wait. You can't keep a secret? I'm the someone you always tell those secrets to!"

"Yeah, but this was your secret to begin with, which means you already knew. I can't tell you your own secret."

"So, out of everyone you decide to tell Kurt?"

"Um I object." Kurt exclaimed.

"This isn't court, Kurt. You can't object." Mercedes dismissed.

"I can do whatever the hell I want. Now, there's a reason Santana told me and no one else. We know you better than anyone besides Sam. Santana told me your plan, and while I think you could definitely benefit from that, I think you should go with Satan's idea of the lying bastard thing."

Santana and Kurt looked at each other and smiled like crazy, but Mercedes was quick to shut them down. "No. I'm not doing the lying bastard thing," She pointed to Santana. "That's the last time I'm telling you," She pointed to Kurt. "And the first and last time I'm telling you. I'm not going to pretend to believe him until I expose him. I'm just going to watch him and Shane and try my absolute best to believe him."

"Until you expose him." Kurt and Santana spoke at the same time before smiling and winking at each other.

"Will you stop it? Both of you!" Mercedes hit them both on the shoulders. "Who says there's anything to expose him for anyways?"

Kurt was about to speak when Mr. Schue came in the choir room and walked to the white board. "Alright, everyone. If you will please take your seats." The trio walked to their seats and Mr. Schue began writing on the board. "This week, we'll be focusing on many different things. Which is why this week's assignment is..." He moved from in front of the white board. "Individuality!" The teacher stood there with a proud smile on his face, but no one was smiling in the room but him. "What's the matter, guys? I thought you would like this assignment."

Blaine spoke up first. "Mr. Schue, I don't mean to sound patronizing or anything, but don't we practice individuality every week?"

Then Mercedes. "Yeah, Blaine's right. There's not really a person in this room that doesn't have some sort of individuality."

Then Quinn. "Exactly. There's also not one person in here who hasn't been through something totally crazy except Rachel. We've all got things that make us different from the person beside us. We don't need a lesson on that."

Mr. Schue frowned slightly. "No, not just your regular old definition of individuality. I mean being different. Being an umbrella. Being open to anything and everything. This week is going to be a busy week for us. We've got sectionals coming up soon, we've got the musical-"

"In which I will obviously be playing Sandy." Rachel interrupted.

"No way, Berry." Santana came to Mercedes' defense. "Mercedes is totes going to out-audition your ass and get that part."

"Well, Mercedes probably could get it if this were something different, but Sandy is more suitable for my voice. I think we all know this."

"Ok, Rachel. You're my friend and all, but don't go trying to say you're better than me." Mercedes came into the conversation. "You've had everything handed to you on a silver platter, but I'm not taking it anymore. Not only do I deserve more solos, but so does pretty much everyone in here besides you. Like I said, we're all different and because of this, we all have something different that we bring to the table."

"Sure, Mercedes. But think about it this way." Rachel centered everyone's attention back on her. "It's not that no one else deserves the solos, it's that they don't work for them."

"Oh, pendejadas." Santana rolled her eyes.

"Santana!" Mr. Schue warned.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Schuester but that's just bull crap. Everyone in here works their ass off for solos every week and she gets everything without even trying."

"I blame you, Mr. Schue." Quinn said calmly. "You're the one who gives her the solos all the time. Maybe if you paid some attention to other people in the club, we wouldn't get so riled up about it."

"Ok, enough." Mr. Schue shouted, scaring some of the teenagers. "The play and the glee club are going to be functioning as two different things this year. However, all of you will audition, if not for a lead, then for an extra or anything. Everyone in this club will be on that stage. And as far as parts go, that's not solely up to me this year. This year, there will be a committee consisting of Ms. Pillsbury, Artie, and myself. We will vote on who should get the parts. Ms. Pillsbury is there as an impartial party. That way, there's not absolute chance of anyone getting anything. It's anybody's game. Now, I want to introduce you all to someone. She's just joining us here at Mckinley from Carmel High, and she was a member of Vocal Adrenaline and—."

"Oh, God, not a Jesse St. James remix." Kurt muttered annoyingly.

"I don't know, it could be Sunshine Corazon coming back here to make Rachel's life a living hell. _That_ I probably wouldn't mind too much." Tina shrugged.

"Or it could be someone who's just a fabulous singer from vocal adrenaline who can help totally reform this glee club into a more competent group of performers." Rachel smiled sarcastically.

"Okay, you guys." Will paused and huffed. "Look, I know what you're thinking, but she came to me with a genuine heart, she auditioned, and she's really good. She'll definitely bring something valuable to glee as a team and bring something valuable as an individual. So, without further adieu, I want everyone to welcome Larissa Smith to the Mckinley High Glee Club."

As Larissa walked in the choir room, the only people in the room who clapped were Rachel, Quinn, Tina, and Blaine. Everyone else knew who this was. And they were quite surprised.

Mercedes was probably the most surprised. She had never met Larissa before, but she had seen her and knew she was beautiful.

"Alright," Will said awkwardly, sensing a shift of the energy in the room. "Larissa, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?"

Larissa smiled and nodded. "Sure, Mr. Schuester…"

As the new girl talked, Mercedes looked over to Sam, who was frozen with eyes as wide as saucers. Mercedes, aware of everyone's eyes on them, leaned over to Sam and whispered angrily. "Did you know she was coming here? Sam, I swear to God if you knew about this, I will cut your fucking balls off.

Sam shook his head rapidly. he honestly didn't know, and he was really scared that Mercedes would think he was lying. "No idea whatsoever. Please don't cut my balls off." He whimpered. Larissa looked over to Sam and shot him a smile. Sam looked away.

"Oh, fuck this. Do I have to kick her ass? Because She's damn near as thin as a pencil. I will take her down."

"Okay. You don't have to do that. At least not yet." Sam said hopefully. "Just let me talk to her."

"Let you talk to her, who the hell do you think I am, Samuel?"

"Not what I meant. Please don't hurt me. I'm going to have the guys on standby or something if it makes you feel better. Just let me figure this out and clear things up."

"Well, whatever you do, you better tell her ass to stop it with the smiling at you. She looks like a damn cheshire cat. Why in the hell is she even here, anyways?"

Sam shrugged his shoulders, but Kurt must've heard Mercedes, because he asked the same question.

"Well," Larissa was still smiling. "I recently had to move in with my uncle for some personal reasons,"

"Oh, 'moving in with the uncle' story who even uses that shit anymore?" Mercedes whispered harshly.

"Be nice." Kurt snapped back.

"With that being said, I'm really excited to be here. I know our clubs have had our ups and downs-"

"You threw eggs at me." Rachel raised her hand.

Larissa's smile faltered. "Yeah. I actually wasn't there for that... activity. I was in New York. But I heard about it. And I apologize for the actions of my team."

"They're not your team anymore." Puck stated. "Remember that."

"He's right." Santana spoke in her evil tone. "You should know that we eat, sleep, and breathe the act of taking Vocal Adrenaline down any chance we get. We also pretty much have a predisposition to disliking anyone in Vocal Adrenaline past and present. This means that for a while most of us aren't going to talk to you."

Larissa stood there, looking pretty stunned. "Ok. I'd never treat any of you like that, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get into your good graces."

Mercedes leaned over to Kurt and whispered. "Whatever it takes? Is she serious? She's about ten seconds away from the most worst beatdown of her life."

Kurt chuckled. "Be nice. You don't even know what her deal is yet. She might actually be the really good person she's pretending to be."

Mercedes looked at Kurt confusedly. She turned back to Sam, who was looking anywhere except the front of the room. Mercedes felt a tap on her shoulder.

"She better not be wearing wheat I think she's wearing." Santana muttered.

At first, Mercedes didn't know what her friend was talking about. She had been so obsessed with thinking of ways to get rid of the new girl, she didn't even notice that she was wearing it. "A Cheerios uniform."

"Oh, dear God." Kurt took notice as well. He got slightly nervous then. "What in the hell are you going to do, Mercedes?"

"Alright Larissa if you will, please take a seat." Mr. Schue put his hand on Larissa's shoulder and sent her to the seats with the other glee kids. "Alright, guys. I want to get down to how important this musical is for us. All proceeds will go to helping us get to Nationals, should we qualify. So, everyone needs to not only try their best to _get_ good parts, but they need to try their best _once_ they get their parts. This is a really big thing for us, guys. If all goes well, Nationals won't be a budget problem for us, which means we can do more stuff. Now, back to this week's assignment-"

Mr. Schue was interrupted by multiple groans from the students.

"Okay, fine. Since you guys are so against the idea of this assignment, I'm not making it mandatory for whoever auditions for a major role in the musical. Doesn't matter which roles you audition for as long as they have some type of importance in the play. So, until school gets out, I want you guys to try to find something to sing, either for the audition, or the assignment. Good luck, and I'll be in my office if you need me. If you need any sheet music or help anything that concerns the musical, Artie's your man. Have at it." Mr. Schue gave the kids a smile and walked into his office.

When Mercedes got up to talk to Santana about their duet, she noticed Larissa looking for someone to talk to. Mercedes looked to Santana and signaled for them to go talk to Larissa. "Hi. Larissa, right?" Mercedes smiled politely and held out her hand for Larissa to shake.

"Yep, that's me." Larissa chuckled as she shook Mercedes hand. "You're Mercedes and Santana. Co-captains of the Cheerios. You guys are both something like legends at my school."

"Oh, really?" Mercedes was shocked. Vocal Adrenaline and the Xplosives were pretty much better than the New Directions and the Cheerios. It was hard to believe that she and Santana were legends.

"Oh, totally. You guys are co-captains of the Cheerios, which would make you amazing even if you weren't already. And you guys have jaw-dropping voices. There aren't a lot of people at my school who don't worship you guys."

Santana almost cut Larissa off and pushed Mercedes aside. "Hello, Larissa. It's very nice meeting you. I'm so glad you decided to join us. I've noticed you're wearing a Cheerios uniform. You weren't in practice. What's up with that?"

Larissa looked down at her uniform, tugging at it slightly. "Oh, yeah. Well, I was supposed to be back all day today, but my flight got delayed from New York. So, when I got here, the principal-"

"Principal Figgins. We know the guy."

"Yeah, well he said I should try going to this class, because it'll probably be the best I've got. But I tried out for the Cheerios a few weeks ago, and had a spot on the squad before I even came here. It's not captain or co-captain, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. Maybe I'll get to be your sort of right hand man to you guys."

"Well, we already have two of those, but maybe." Mercedes still wore that polite smile. Her cheeks were starting to hurt. "Well, Santana and I have to go. We plan on auditioning for the play together. But it was nice talking to you. Hopefully we'll see you in practice tomorrow?"

"Yeah, for sure." Larissa nodded.

Ok, great. Later."

"Later." Larissa waved as her new acquaintances walked away. "Oh, wait. Mercedes?"

Mercedes turned around. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Can I talk to you? Privately?" Larissa looked between Mercedes and Santana awkwardly.

Mercedes looked at Santana, who whispered. "I'll watch you." and walked away.

Mercedes walked back to Larissa and sat down beside her. "What's up?"

"Well, first off, I want to thank you and Santana for coming over and talking to me. Even though I have a feeling that Santana just wants to take me down." Both girls chuckled before Larissa spoke again. "Next, I want to know if you could maybe take some time out to help me with some of the routines? Most of them I already know, but if you could give me maybe an hour or so of your time I would really appreciate it."

Mercedes smiled genuinely this time. Even though Larissa had been rumored to be with Sam, Mercedes start to forget about it more and more. Larissa appeared to be a really cool potential friend. "Okay. You're welcome. And I know Santana might seem like an angry beast always on rampage at first, and be a bit jarring, but trust me, as you get to know her she's actually a really good person. And I would love to help you. Although I'm surprised you didn't ask Quinn or even Brittany. They're amazing teachers."

"Yeah, but Coach Sylvester suggested you. She said you had some special attributes I could really learn from if I wanted to make an astounding effect on the team."

Mercedes liked to hear her higher-ups bragging on her. She suddenly found herself being really nice to Larissa. "Then I'd be happy to teach you. Actually, How's today after school sound? If you want to stay here, we can. Or we can go to my house and do it there."

Larissa shook her head. "I don't want to disrupt your privacy or anything."

"Nonsense. We can go to my house. Give me your number and I'll text you the address." Mercedes took her phone out and the girls exchanged numbers. "So, I'll send you the address see you about 5, 5:30?"

"Yeah. Do you want me to bring anything?"

"No. Just you and your skills. So it's a date, then?"

"Yeah it's a date." Larissa looked around the room. "One more thing. Do you know who might be a good duet partner?"

Mercedes shook her head. "Sorry. In order to give you the best option, I'd have to know practically everything about you. But Artie's probably the only one who doesn't already have a number prepared. He's directing the musical, so he can't audition."

"Yeah, what's this musical everyone appears to be talking about?"

"Grease. Auditions are next week, so if you want to sign up, you have to do it fast." Dammit, there I go again. Mercedes couldn't help but be oh-so nice to Larissa.

"Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem. I'll see you at 5?"

"See you then." Larissa smiled one last time at Mercedes.

Once Mercedes got back to Santana, she put her hands out in front of her as if she were strangling someone. "I want to hate her. I want to hate her so bad! But I can't! It's driving me crazy and I want to want to hit her so bad-"

"I'm sorry," Santana stopped Mercedes with her hand. "I know you're flipping out about the fact that you're not flipping out about what you want to flip out about, but what do you mean by you want to want to hit her?"

"It's literally the same thing you're doing right now. I don't want to hit her. But if it was up to me, I would want to hit her. So, since I don't want to hit her, I want to want to hit her. Now, back to what I was saying. She's just got so much grace and style it's like she'd got sunshine pouring out of her goddamn pores. I can't take it. She's so happy and nice. And, Tana, oh my god. She asked me if I could help her tighten up on these cheers and who would be the best to do a duet with. She's trusting me. She's putting her trust in me. What the hell do I do?"

Santana laughed. "Okay. First of all, you calm down. Second, you take advantage of her trust. Use it to find out whether or not she's still with Sam."

"But when she finds out I'm Sam girlfriend, won't she pull away?"

"Not if she doesn't know that you two are together. Here's what you do. You and Sam stage a break up. Very amicable, nothing that crosses the line. Something that will be easy for you to 'bounce back' from. Then, you get on her good side. Make her think that you've forgotten about Sam as a boyfriend, convince her to let you in. Then, find out if they were still dating. And bam. If they were still dating, don't worry about getting back together with Sam. If she's not, you and Sam can go back to making out in front of everybody and say you got back together."

"No."

"Why won't you go along with any of my plans?"

"Because they're crazy! Besides, Sam drove me to school this morning and Larissa will be at my house in an hour and a half. I don't have enough time to tell him the plan and make out. He's a slow learner."

"Fine, whatever. You should probably just let Sam talk to her or something."

"That's it. I'm done." Mercedes turned her head towards her boyfriend, who was doing something with Blaine. "Sam are you ready to go?"

Sam looked over to Mercedes and nodded. "Yeah. I'll get our stuff." Sam smiled at Blaine. "I'll see you later, dude. I'm about to go get my mac on."

"You know what to do, right?" Mercedes looked back at Santana.

Santana nodded. "Yeah, I've got you."

Mercedes went to Mr. Schue's office to let him know that they were leaving since they weren't doing anything and there were only a few minutes left in the day. She said goodbye to the glee clubbers as she and Sam were walking out of the door, and stopped walking as soon as no one in the choir room could see them. When Sam asked Mercedes what she was doing, she shushed him. "I'm waiting on a text from Santana." Mercedes' phone vibrated in her hands. It was a text.

_Smiling. She was smiling. It wasn't even a smile that turned into a snarl it was just a smile smile. How in the hell does she do it?- Tana_

_I told you. You didn't believe me before. The sunshine, Tana. It spews out of her like some fountain. It's sickening. Look, I can't do this alone. Not today. Please tell me you'll come over to help with her this afternoon.- Cedes_

_Idk. Don't think so, but I'll let you know- Tana_

Mercedes grunted. "Ok, let's go. We've only got an hour before Larissa and Santana show up at my house."

"What?" Sam's eyes widened as he felt his heart stop briefly.

"She's coming to work on some Cheerio stuff."

"Okay. What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. Play with Prince. Call my brother. You can just watch if you want. But just know, there's no touchy stuff or feeling me up once Larissa gets there. You're going to act like we're not even together. And she better not look at you all flirty. If she does, it's both your asses." Mercedes approached the door of Sam's truck and he opened it for her. "Do I make myself clear?"

Sam smiled and bent down towards her and kissed her softly. "Crystal."

* * *

_4:45, Mercedes' house._

Mercedes and Sam were sitting on the couch with her legs laying across his lap and his hand on her thigh.

"Larissa's going to be here in 15 minutes." Sam looked over at Mercedes awkwardly.

"I know that, Sam." Mercedes sounded slightly annoyed.

"Why do you sound like that? I thought we were coming here to… You know." He moved both his hands around one another as if he wanted Mercedes to figure out what he was saying.

"I do, Sam. I'm sorry. I just don't really know how I feel about this whole Larissa and Shane love square quadrilateral thing. I haven't really thought about it all day, but now that I'm actually here, with you, alone, it's really just starting to irk me a little."

"Is it something I'm doing? Look, if you ask me, Shane got what was coming to him. Actually he should've gotten more. I should punch him so hard in the face he'd be shitting knuckle sandwiches for a week."

Mercedes laughed hard, almost spitting at the thought. "He doesn't deserve that much of a beating, Sam. He still loves me. And I'll admit, while I don't still love him, he'll always have a special place in my heart. He was special."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we kiss now?"

"Eh. Whatever. Lay one on me babe." Mercedes puckered her plump lips.

Sam leaned over her short legs and kissed her. One kiss led to another, and before they knew it, they were in the middle of an intense makeout session. They were both starting to get sweaty, the room hot and steamy with every kiss. In the time that they had been together, their makeout sessions were usually affectionate and sweet. But every now and then, Sam let loose on her. Mercedes had come to call it 'the beast' because that's what it felt like to her. Whenever 'the beast' was unleashed, the couple got lost in whatever they were doing.

This time, they got so lost that they didn't even hear a car pulling up in the driveway. They also didn't hear the sound of heels walking up the steps to the door, or the turning of keys in the lock.

But they heard Diane Jones. "What the hell are y'all doing?"

The teenagers shot up out of the couch, shocked. Mercedes spoke first. "Mom, we weren't. It's not. This isn't…"

Sam looked perplexed. "Did you not tell her already?" He whispered to Mercedes.

"She didn't tell me anything. All I know is, somebody better explain before both of you get your asses handed to you."


	9. Look Who's Home

Diane Jones- Alfre Woodard

Ada Jones- Danielle Brooks

* * *

Mercedes walked towards her mom hurriedly. "Mom, I can explain-"

"You can explain why you and Sam were just at second base on my couch?" Diane put her things on the floor beside her and her hands on her hips.

Sam tried to prevent the shit from hitting the fan. "Mrs. D, I think you should know-"

"Not now, Samuel." Diane put her hand out to shut Sam up before returning it to her hip. "I'd like to hear from my daughter."

Mercedes begged and pleaded to her mother for mercy. "Mama, it's not what you think, I promise."

Diane's voice was stern. "Let me see if I can get this right. You two have been in a relationship and you come home everyday and get busy on my couch."

Mercedes could feeling her heart pounding in her entire body. "No, we haven't gotten busy, Mama. I promise, okay? This was just a…" Mercedes trailed off when she saw that her mother started to smile.

"This is amazing!" Diane screamed and went over to hug Sam excitedly. "Oh, I knew this day would come, I just knew it. I never thought it would take you so long, but better late than never, right?" She then looked back and Mercedes, and went to hug her as well.

During all of this, Mercedes and Sam exchanged the best 'what the hell' looks before settling on the 'let's just go with it' look. Mercedes, however, just couldn't let it go. "So, you're excited? You don't want to tear us apart limb from limb?"

Diane laughed. "Of course I'm excited! Ever since you two met, it's been 'Samcedes' nonstop."

"You know about 'Samcedes'?" Sam asked puzzledly.

"Santana told me. The girl's evil as hell but she can come in with some good info. She already told me you two were together. I just thought I could give you guys a quick scare. Just for kicks. I just can't believe you didn't tell me."

Mercedes rubbed her arms. "I would've told you. It's just that I know how daddy gets whenever I date guys. He can go easy on them, and they'll still run out of the house crying. I know Sam will be no exception. So, this means that you will not tell daddy."

"Are you kidding me, sweetheart? Your dad will love this. It's really not as big of a deal as you might think. I won't tell him, but you definitely should."

"No way. Who knows what he'll do or say to Sam?" Mercedes motioned for her boyfriend to support her.

"Yeah. I really don't want to be torn to shreds." Sam said awkwardly. "But I do want to apologize to you, Mrs. D. If Mercedes and I had known that you would be home so soon, we… well, we probably would've made out in her room, but it wouldn't have gone any farther than that." Sam shook his head, knowing that he was making a fool of himself.

Diane waved Sam off. "No worries, Samuel. I appreciate the honesty. You guys know to use protection if things do go that far, right?"

"Mama!" Mercedes whined.

"What?" Diane shrugged at the sound of her daughter's voice. "Look, I don't believe that either of you are the type to do anything without it, but I just want to make sure. I want grandchildren, but not this soon. Not from you two."

"You don't have to worry. Mercedes isn't going to do anything like that anytime soon."

"Oh, god. Why are we all so okay with having this conversation out in the open?" Mercedes threw her hands up in frustration.

Diane was about to speak when there was a knock at the door. She looked to the door to see her daughter, Ada.

"Surprise!" Ada waved her arms out in front of her.

"Ada?" Diane went to hug her oldest daughter. "What are you doing here? Didn't school just start back?"

Ada nodded. "Yeah, but they're sending some upperclassmen back to their hometowns to find inspiration for a new project we're doing. I was one of the ones chosen, so I'll be taking my classes online until the trip is up."

"Wow, Ada. That's great." Sam appeared from behind Diane.

"Sam, hey. You look so grown, boy. All buffed and handsome." Ada walked to Sam and hugged him before seeing her sister. "Cedes, you haven't changed a bit. I mean nothing. Have you changed anything at all since I saw you last?"

"Ada, it was almost a year ago when you saw me last. I've changed many things." Mercedes frowned.

"Yeah, same here. But I appreciate the compliments. Thanks." Sam said.

"Oh, please, little sis. You know you're happy to see me." Ada put her arm around her sister. "But seriously, take the whole changing thing into consideration. A new look could really do you some good. We should most definitely go shopping while we're down here. Maybe get some new clothes, makeup, change your hairstyle a little bit." She ran her hand Mercedes' hair.

Mercedes wormed out of her sister's hold. "Okay, great. Can you not do that? Because guess what. I have to go fix my hair again. Excuse me." Mercedes was on her way out of the room, and grabbed Sam's hand to bring him with her. As soon as their hands touched, Mercedes realized she had made a big mistake.

"Wait." Ada smiled as she walked to the couple slowly. "Is this happening right now? Are you two together? Because this just might be the best day ever."

"What makes you think we're together?" Mercedes said tiredly. The last thing she needed was her in all her business.

"You're holding hands." Ada motioned to the interlocked hands.

Sam didn't understand why Mercedes was being so weird to her sister. "Yeah, actually-"

"We always hold hands." Mercedes pointed out.

"Yeah, true. I don't know I guess I just thought-"

"Mama, Santana and this new girl from school are coming to practice for a little bit. The new girl asked if I could help, and I invited her over. They'll be here in a few minutes. That okay with you?" Mercedes looked over her sister's shoulder at her mother, who looked displeased.

"Fine with me. Just make sure you all are careful. They can stay for dinner time if they want. Tell them to let their parents know." Diane looked to her oldest daughter and smiled. "Come in the kitchen with me. I wanna know all about this project. I might even be able to help you out a little."

Ada chuckled. "I doubt it." Ada could sense Mercedes' attitude towards her. She sent Mercedes a tight-lipped smile. "See you later, sis."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go, Sam." Mercedes walked up the stairs to her room.

Diane was about to walk into the kitchen when she saw Ada's face. "Don't worry about it. You're her big sister. She looks up to you. But she was right in saying that it's been a while. Plus, it's just the things you say sometimes."

"But I don't mean for it to come off that way. She knows that."

"Give her some time. She probably just wanted some alone time with Sam. You might not even be the problem."

Ada sighed. "Okay. They do look kind of cute together…"

"I know, right? I mean, that Shane guy was okay but this is what I've been waiting on-"

Ada stopped her mother. "For the longest time. I know exactly what you mean, mama. Say no more."

The mother and daughter both laughed.

Diane walked over to her daughter and held her hand, rubbing it gently. "I've really missed you, kid. You and Kellan. You've both got to be so big and grown up."

"What about Jeremy?"

Diane rolled her eyes. "I love him, too. But he's over here everyday; there's not much of him to miss."

Ada tsked. "And how does Daddy feel about it?"

"Well, you know how your dad feels about his whole situation. I honestly don't even know how they're father and son. Anyways, let's talk about you. What's this project thing you're talking about?"

* * *

"So, what's wrong?" Sam spoke softly. He was sitting on Mercedes' bed while she fixed her hair.

"Nothing's wrong, Sam. I'm just ready to get this Larissa thing over with. That's all." Mercedes lied through her teeth.

"You're lying. What is it, babe? You know I won't tell anyone."

"I'm not worried about you telling anyone. Just forget it. It's really not that important." Lying again.

Sam stood up from the bed and put his hands on his girlfriend's shoulders, massaging them gently. "You can tell me, Mercedes. Anything that has you talking to your sister the way you did down there has to be important." He received no response. "You're not invincible, Cedes."

"You think I don't know that? It's not a matter of being invincible. I'm human. Humans take things and they make them bigger than what they really are, which is probably what I'm doing. Just forget it, I told you." Mercedes leaned on her dresser and put her head in her hands.

"I don't care if you're overreacting, Mercedes. There appears to be something bothering you, and I just want to know what it is. That's-"

"Sam, can you leave please?"

"Mercy, I-"

"I'll be down in a second. Just _go,_ please."

Sam kissed her on the cheek and exited the room without a word.

Mercedes sighed into her hands. She lifted her head and looked into the mirror in front of her. She knew there was a real reason her sister was here that had nothing to do with a senior project. She just didn't know what it was.

Mercedes would've gotten lost in her thoughts, had there not been a knock at her bedroom door. "I'm coming in, so I hope you're decent." It was Santana. Santana came in just as she said she would, and sat on the bed. "So, your sister's back."

Mercedes went over to her bed, sat beside her friend, and laid her head on Santana's shoulder. "Yeah, she is."

"What's this?" She gestured to Mercedes' mood.

Mercedes shook her head. "Something's not right."

"Something as in?"

"Something as in Ada. She's not back for a senior project."

Santana frowned, "How would you know that?"

Merecedes groaned as she fell back flat on her bed. "Because I know. I just do."

Santana did the same, "Well, now, you seem to be in a funk. What do you want me to do? I can tell Larissa to go back home. Tell her that we canceled. Not like she would get mad. Bitch won't get angry for anything."

Mercedes chuckled. "No thank you, Santana. I'll be fine. I have to apologize to Sam, though. I made him leave my room without an explanation."

"You don't have to apologize for anything. Guppy will be just fine. You and your damn warm, tenderhearted soul." Santana laughed at what she was saying, thinking about how true it was. "You don't have to apologize for everything. You're in a funk. Your actions are hereby excused."

"It's not a funk. I don't know." Mercedes got up and opened the door. "Let's get down there. We've got a happy-go-lucky cheerleader waiting on us."

The two friends went downstairs to see Larissa and Sam sitting on the couch together. Santana walked over to Larissa slowly. "Hey, Larissa. You ready?"

Larissa nodded and smiled. "Yeah, totally. Let's go." Larissa got up from the couch and turned to Sam, who was sitting on the couch, not looking at her. "Sam."

"Larissa." Sam said softly.

The girls walked out, leaving Sam all by himself. He was watching some show on the t.v., but he wasn't paying attention. All of a sudden, Ada appeared.

"Hey, Sam. How's it going?"

"It's going alright. You?"

Ada nodded. "Good. It's going pretty good. Listen, I wanted to talk to you about Mercedes."

"Oh, well, I don't know what's wrong with her. She won't tell me."

"So, it's not something I said? Because I don't really mean any of it. She knows that, right? And she knows that I love her?"

"No, don't worry about any of that. She knows all that already. I think your appearance might've just offset her a little bit. She's been a little resentful towards you. It's not anything against you personally, I'm assuming. I think that it's just how she wanted everything to work out versus how it actually worked out."

Ada continued to look at Sam. "So she's not actually mad at me?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I think she's kind of misdirecting her anger at you. It's probably nothing to worry about. Believe me. It'll all blow over."

"You think so?"

Sam put his hand on Ada's shoulder. "I know so. Just give her some time. She's missed you like crazy, no doubt."

Tears came to Ada's eyes as she spoke. "It's just so weird when she does this, you know? She's always felt like I thought I was better than her. And I'm not trying to be arrogant or anything at all, but I'm just sick of it being like this between us. We used to be so close, Sam. I just want that back. I want us to be what we were. I know I kind of messed that up along the way, but I thought she would forgive me. I'm on my meds and I'm doing my best..." Ada began to cry silently. She always hated the distance between her and her sister, but there was nothing that she could really do about it.

Sam comforted the girl who was like his older sister. "Ade, you went through something that was out of your control, and you can't help it. Don't beat yourself up about this. And you know something? Mercedes will act like it's a bigger deal than it is. That's just Mercedes. She'll probably always be like that. Everyone else has been able to work through this, and you're doing good. Just give her some time, and let me talk to her."

Ada wiped her eyes and sighed. "Okay, you're right. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to break down on you, i just have absolutely no idea where she's coming from." She shook her head. "I don't mean that. What I mean is that I understand where she's coming from, but not why she's dragging it out like this."

"It's not a problem, Ada. I've got your back. I'll be the sister you never had. I know I can't really replace, Mercedes, but I'll try my hardest."

Ada laughed through her tears. "Ok. You can try, but I honestly doubt that you'll match up to her."

"Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you ask her out for something this weekend? I mean, we were gonna go on a date, but I will happily step aside for you."

"No, you can't do that. If you guys are planning on doing something, don't let me ruin it. You guys are cute together. Plus, I'm not going to cause a breach in you guys' relationship just because I want to fix things between my sister and I. Go on your date, and we'll do something some other time."

"You sure?"

"Positive. Go out and have fun. But not too much fun. I don't want to have to kill you."

"You don't have to worry about that. I'm pretty sure she won't be doing anything like that with me anytime soon." He chuckled. "Also, I just thought I'd let you know," His voice became somber. "My dad started drinking again like, 2 days after we got together-"

"Oh, Sam." Ada gasped. "I'm so sorry."

"No, it's fine. My mom got him to rehab before he could cause anymore damage. So he's there, and he's struggling, but we believe he'll pull through."

"I'm not trying to pry, but can your mom afford rehab all by herself?"

"Yeah, totally. Dad's insurance is paying for it, actually. And my mom makes enough to support us. We just have to dial back on the luxuries a bit. Jay fixed my truck for me and Mercedes said she can pay for my gas. Jay also offered me a job at his shop."

"You're taking it, right? You should take it."

"I don't want to scrounge off of them. I wasn't ready to be showered with cash."

"They're not showering you, Sam. They're taking care of you.. God knows, if I was here all the time, I'd help you too. Don't you play guitar? I know some people over in Columbus, Dayton, all over the place. I could really set you up with a few connections. You could get some gigs or something."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm good, but I'm not that good."

"Now I _know_ you don't believe that. You should at least try. Just let me know if you want me to talk to someone, okay?"

"Ehh, I'll think about it."

Ada smiled. "Yes! I'm so excited for you, and you haven't even gotten anything yet. I promise, Sam. Just try it, and you'll do great." She got up. "Well, I've got to finish moving my stuff back in."

"Stuff? How long are you staying?"

"Really, I don't know. I'm just waiting to see what kind of inspiration Lima brings me, and then I'll be going back." Ada put her hand on Sam's shoulder as she walked away. "Thanks for making me feel better, Shiner. I'll talk to you later."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Still with that same nickname, I see."

Ada laughed. "You bet." She yelled.

* * *

_A few hours later_

Diane put the last plate on the table in front of herself as she sat down. "Alright, before we eat, I'd like to welcome Larissa to our home. I don't know you, but you most certainly seem like a nice girl."

Larissa smiled sweetly. "Why, thank you, Mrs. Jones. I'm glad you invited me to stay. You have a lovely house. And this food, my goodness. It looks-"

Mercedes stopped Larissa. "Yes, this is amazing and all, but can we eat now? I'm starving. Also, I've never seen such appetizing chicken tetrazzini."

"Wait, Mercedes." Diane's voice echoed throughout the massive dining room. "I know we don't have any rituals, but you always have to be considerate of others." She looked to the girl sitting beside Sam. "Larissa, if you'd like to pray or… I don't know, sing or anything, go ahead."

Larissa looked at everyone at the table, and she could feel the awkward tension. "No, ma'am. I don't actually consider myself religious." Still feeling the tension. "Let's eat." She smiled when everyone at the table finally got the message and started fixing their plates.

"So, Larissa," Diane looked over to the new girl in her house. "If you don't consider yourself religious, what do you consider yourself? If you don't mind me asking"

"Well, I don't mind at all, but it's kind of complicated. And I don't want to ruin everyone's dinner with my life story."

"Oh, nonsense. Tell us, please."

"Alright." Larissa put her glass down. "Well, I am a deist, as well as sbnr."

"Sbnr?" Sam's mouth was full of food, earning him a kick under the table from Mercedes.

"It means spiritual but not religious."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Santana looked at Larissa, then at everyone else at the table. "Basically she believes in God or another higher power, but she doesn't believe in this higher power's interaction with us here in the universe. Focusing on ethics and morals and stuff right?"

Larissa chuckled. "Wow. That's the most accurate explanation I've ever heard from an outsider." You've mostly got it right. I really like focusing on myself and where I stand in this world as a person. Sort of. It's complicated. There's other things to it, but we'll save that for later. I'd like to learn about you all. Especially you three since we'll all be together for the next couple of years."

"What an excellent idea." Mercedes said almost sarcastically. "Santana, why don't you start first?"

"What?" Santana's head shot up from her plate.

"Talk about yourself. Now." Mercedes widened her eyes so that her friend would get the message.

Santana brought her glass of water to her mouth and drank some of it, nodding. "Well, I'm Santana. I'm a bad bitch, and I take no nonsense."

"Language at the table, Santana." Diane warned.

"Right, sorry. I've lived in Lima since I was about 3. When I got here I met Mercedes, and we've been besties ever since." Santana winked at Mercedes.

"I remember that. We met on the playground one day downtown. We took our first ballet class together, and we've done everything together since that day."

"Ok, so what about you, Sam?"

Sam wasn't exactly sure whether he should say something or not. He didn't want to get kicked again.

"Sam moved here when he was just a baby. We met when I was two and he was one. He and Santana have been in competition with one another to win me over for the longest." Mercedes joked. Everyone at the table laughed at what Mercedes said.

Sam had something to say. "Well, I guess we can see who won." He smiled as he grabbed Mercedes' hand and held it up as if they had just won a wrestling match.

"Oh, so you guys are dating?" Larissa asked.

Mercedes cursed herself as her planned was foiled but plastered on a grimacing smile, "We sure are." She shot daggers at Sam.

Santana roller her eyes. "Please, Trouty. You might've won the whole 'romantic relationship' battle, but that's pretty much it. I've got everything else in the bag." She paused. "Actually, I have _that_ in the bag as well because I have Brittany. So ha."

"That's great." Larissa smiled. "You guys sound like true siblings. Minus the relationship stuff."

"Yeah, we're pretty tight." Sam tried to recover his slip from earlier. He nudged Mercedes on the shoulder like a good friend would do.

The group was eating their dinner, having nice table talk, when Larissa brought up the musical at school.

"Yeah, Jeremy told me about that a few weeks ago." Diane said. "Why haven't I heard anything from you ladies?" She looked at Santana and Mercedes expectantly.

Both of the girls were at a loss for words, but Santana quickly recovered. "We actually wanted to surprise you, Di. We didn't want to tell you about it unless we actually got the parts." Santana looked at Mercedes, who nodded convincingly.

"Tell me now, then. I think you two will get those parts, so tell me."

"Well, we can obviously say that I'll get the part of Rizzo… but Mercedes is gonna have some stiff competition. She's up against Rachel for Sandy."

"My baby in the lead of the school musical. Don't worry about Rachel. She'll bring what she brings and you'll bring what you bring. Which will be better than what she brings." Diane shrugged.

Ada spoke up. "She's right. You got this, Mercedes. You think Mr. Schue would mind if I sat in for auditions and stuff to help with my project?"

"Actually it probably wouldn't be—"

"YES." Santana's face lit up. "I have no doubt that he'd love it. Artie's directing too, it'll be amazing for you to come in and teach us some of the things you learned at Tisch."

Larissa gasped. "Oh, my god. Did you go to NYU?"

Ada smiled. "I'm still there, actually. This is my 4th year. I'm back for a senior project."

"Holy crap. You _have _to tell me about what it's like there. I've got my sights set." Larissa looked like she would pass out from the rush of excitement.

"Oh, yeah. Anytime." Ada glanced at her sister. "I know Mercedes has thought about NYU too. Right, Cedes?"

Mercedes shrugged as she avoided eye contact with Ada. "I've been leaning towards NYADA for the last year or so."

"Okay, well, how about I talk about it one day in glee?"

"Sure, if that's what you want to do." Mercedes said curtly. "Larissa, you should probably get home. Your uncle probably doesn't want you out this late with people you don't know."

Larissa pulled her phone out from her pocket and looked at the time. "Oh, gosh. You're right I need to get going. Mrs. Jones, thank you so, so much for the dinner. It was very delicious." She stood up from her chair as she put her napkin on the table beside her plate.

"No problem, sweetheart. It was nice having you stay for dinner. Nice meeting you." Diane smiled.

"You too, ma'am. And it was nice meeting you, Ada. I can't wait to hear those stories about NYU. You've got me super excited."

Ada smiled. "Me too. I'll have Mercedes give you my number. We can talk."

"I'll walk you out, Larissa." Mercedes stood up from the table.

"Ok, thanks. I'll see you all later." Larissa followed Mercedes to the front door.

Mercedes opened the door for Larissa. "Thanks for complimenting my mom so much. Thanks to you, she won't fuss at anyone for the next 24 hours." She chuckled.

Larissa laughed as she walked out of the door. "You're very welcome… Cedes."

Mercedes shook her head slowly.

Larissa winced playfully, her cheeks getting slightly red. "Not yet?"

"I don't think so."

"Okay, then."

The girls both laughed and said goodbye. As soon as Larissa stepped out of the porch, she turned around.

"Mercedes, I think you should know-" Larissa looked for the right words to say as she sighed. "I'm not after him. Yes, we had something. Yes, that something was fun. But he's with you now, and I'm not a bitch like that. Honestly. All I'm doing is looking for a place to fit in." Mercedes still looked skeptical. "I know, I know. My showing up here seems a little bit 'timely'" Larissa put up air quotes. "But it's just the way things worked out. I promise. Sam completely broke things off between us when you two got together."

Mercedes walked out of the door and down to the ground to where Larissa was. She looked at Larissa and started laughing. Once Mercedes caught her breath, she looked at Larissa, who looked almost angry. "I'm sorry. It's just that you look so pitiful trying to convince me so hard. Seriously, I can be a bitch, but I'm not that mean. Look, I just wanted you to steer clear of my man. That's it. I'll admit that at first, I wanted to hate you so bad. I mean, look at you. You're beautiful. You've got a gorgeous body. And you've got this perfect brown dirty blonde hair that looks as lustrous and soft as a robe at the fanciest hotel in the world. You're sickening." They both laughed, and the weird tension dissipated. "I haven't even thought about it for a couple hours, if I'm honest. You going after Sam. But I guess it's nice to know that you're mature enough to clear the air."

"So, we're good?"

"We're good."

"Can I hug you? I come from a dysfunctional family, so we have group hugs like every five minutes. I don't ever feel like something is over unless we've hugged."

Larissa and Mercedes laughed and Mercedes put her arms out. "Bring it in."

Larissa hugged her new friend and smiled before getting serious. "You're gonna clear everything up with Santana, right? Because bringing this up to you was frightening enough. I'm pretty sure Santana would kill me if I said anything about it to her."

Mercedes smiled. "Yeah, I've got you. And, trust me, I understand. We've been best friends for the past 13 years, and she still scares me most of the time."

Larissa got happy again. "Great. Fantastic. So, I've got to go, but I'm glad we had this talk, Mercedes. I have a great feeling about this. We're gonna be good friends."

"We'll see." Mercedes waved as Larissa got in her car and sped off. She walked back into the house to see Ada standing at the door waiting for her. "What do you want?"

"To know what I did. To know why you're treating me like this. To know what I can do to make it stop."

"Bullshit."

"How is that bullshit, Mercedes? Please, tell me because I honestly do not know what the problem is here. If I knew, I would do everything in my power to rectify it, but this is not-"

"You know something, Ada? I never thought you were the type of person to dismiss something you've done. You would know when you've done something wrong, and you've always tried your hardest to make it right. What the hell happened to you?"

"Mercedes, if this is about me being on my meds, believe me, I'm on them now, And I've been on them since… the thing."

"God. Everything is not about your damn meds, Ada. What this is about is the fact that you're lying about this whole project thing. You lied to me, you lied to Sam, you lied to mom, and you're still not being honest about anything."

"What makes you think I'm lying?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Exactly. This is about me and the things I've got going on. I told you, Mercedes I'm taking my medicine."

Mercedes yelled this time. "Oh, that must be why you're here. huh? Because you were taking your meds for once? Since we know that you can be responsible for five minutes, You've come back to show us how 'grown-up' you can be."

"Mercedes, I'm-"

"You want to know why I'm mad at you? Come with me." Mercedes walked upstairs to her room, reached under her pillow, and pulled out a torn envelope. She held it up. "At first, I thought it was mine. I signed up for mail from Tisch a week or so ago. So I opened it. Then I saw that it had your name on it so I was just going to attach a note from myself and forward it to the apartment. But then, you showed up and _lied_. The letter tells all. Shall I? 'Dear Ada Jones,-'"

"Mercedes, don't-"

"This is a confirmation of your _leave of absence_ from Tisch School of the Ar-" Mercedes felt the letter being snathced out of her hand. "I've already read it, Ada. So stop-"

"No." Ada spoke lowly. "How could you?"

"How could I? How could you? A leave of absence, Ada? A leave of fucking absence and you have the nerve to waltz in here like everthing's straight and talk about a senior project."

"Mercedes, I need it, okay? Things just weren't working out up there."

"Whatever, Ada. Forget it. I don't even care anymore. I don't care why you did it, I don't care why you didn't tell me. Just forget it." Mercedes shook her head. "You come here out of nowhere, like before. You're acting all weird and not telling people stuff, like before. Whatever the hell you've got going on always seems to drag me into it and break me. I have a right to feel some type of way because you're lying about why you're back."

"It's a 'chips fall where they may' thing, Mercedes. I'm sorry if you feel that way, but I can't help that this is how it is."

"You can leave. Then, everything would be just fine. Why don't you just leave?" Mercedes walked closer to her sister with tears running down her face. "Leave. Get out. Goodbye." Mercedes pushed her sister closer to the room door with every sentence.

Ada fought to stand her ground and spat her words out with a newfound venom, "Don't push me, Mercedes. I didn't come to fight you or fight with you. I just came to-"

"To what?"

"I came to apologize to you and to spend time with you, Mercedes. Yes, I took a leave of absence, but I want to be your sister again. I know that the last time I left, we were on bad terms. I don't want that for us anymore."

"That's not why you're back. It has nothing to do with me. Why did you leave New York?"

"I told you."

"Stop lying, Ada! Just be honest! If you can at least be honest with me, I can try to work through our issues. But I want you to be honest. Just tell the truth. I promise you that I can at least try. I hate treating you like this, Ade. I really do. But it's because of the thing _and_ because I always feel like you're lying to everyone. Please." Mercedes watched as tears sprang to Ada's eyes and immediately knew that she shouldn't have been so mean and violent. Something was really wrong. "Don't cry. Please don't cry, Ada. I'm sorry, okay? Don't worry about it. We can just forget the past and start fresh." Mercedes pulled her sister into a hug. "I don't mean to blow up at you like this. I won't do it anymore."

"I'm sorry." Ada sobbed.

"No, it's fine. Don't be sorry."

"I just have no idea what I'm going to do."

"Do? Do about what, Ada?"

Ada continued to cry as she shook her head and began to walk out. "I can't."

Mercedes caught her sister by the wrist. "You can tell me. I won't tell anybody."

Ada stared at Mercedes for a minute or so before just coming out with it. "I'm pregnant."

* * *

Mercedes laid on the ground between Sam's legs by the tree in her backyard, looking up at the stars.

Sam looked over at his girlfriend. "So, what's up? We're here at the tree, so it must be important." When Sam and Mercedes were 8 years old, they carved their names into the tree. 4 years later, Mercedes' dad planned on cutting down all the trees while he was having some remodeling done, but Mercedes wouldn't let him cut this tree down for anything. Now, anytime either of them had something important to talk about, they came to 'the tree'.

"My sister is pregnant." Mercedes said slowly.

"Oh, no. Not my little Ayana. A 7 year old is having a baby?" Sam pretended to faint.

Mercedes laughed as she looked up at Sam. "One, that's weird. Two, stop it. I'm being serious."

Sam sobered up. "Okay. I apologize. So, Ada is pregnant." He gasped at his realization, "That must be why she got so emotional with me earlier."

"Probably, but you can never say that." Mercedes said. "I mean ever."

"Why not?"

"Well, it's fine for a pregnant woman to call out her emotions but someone who's not? And a teenage boy at that? Just don't do it, dude."

"Okay. Well, is that why she came here for her project? To tell your parents, or whatever? Do your parents even know?"

"No. They don't know. And get this: She's not actually doing a project. She's taken a leave of absence for the first semester and then she'll go back to finish whatever courses she needs, or she'll just wait and graduate later than she planned until after she's had the baby. She's still processing it, but she checked with her doctor, and everything's fine. He's put her on some new medicine that's safe for the baby. I'm just worried about her."

"You were just crazy suspicious of her."

"Okay, Sam. Yes I was." Mercedes snapped. " And maybe there's something more going on. But don't you see how serious enough this is? I've been angry at her. I was ready to be fussing and fighting and doing all this stuff, and she's got a baby on the way. She's carrying a life inside of her. What if something happens with her and it affects the baby or how she takes care of herself? What if something with her meds goes awry and it causes complications? Just what if?"

"You have nothing to worry about. I'm sure. I mean, she'll be here everyday. You can have your brother over here to check on her-"

"He can't know, Sam. Look, you weren't even supposed to know. If I tell anyone else, she'll kill me."

"Okay, but everyone's going to find out somehow. The sooner the better. Just tell Jeremy that there's something going on and he just needs to check up on her. Maybe bring her some food or something to make sure she eats well. If you want, we can go during lunch or free period."

"You sure?"

"Positive." Sam kissed Mercedes' hair, taking in the scent of her coconut strawberry shampoo. "Everything's going to work out just fine."

* * *

Mercedes woke up the next morning really tired. Sam stayed over until early that morning, and she had spent a few more hours thinking about her sister, amounting to about 3 hours of sleep. Mercedes got out of her bed and went to her bathroom to take a shower. When she got out, she walked over to Ada's room across the hall. She opened the door to Ada curled up in a ball. She quickly got on the bed and moved to the side her sister was on. "Ada." She whispered.

"Please don't talk in my ear. And don't talk in my face." Ada whimpered.

Mercedes leaned up from her sister's face. "Sorry." Mercedes looked on the other side of the bed to see a trash can with a plastic bag in it sitting on the floor. "Morning sickness?"

"Yeah." Ada sighed. "I felt nauseous at about 1 this morning and I ran to the bathroom, but I ended up puking at my door. I couldn't make it down the hallway. So, after cleaning up one horrible mess, I figured I would prevent the possibility of making another."

"Ada, you could've gotten me. I was still awake."

"I know, but I didn't want to bother you with that. It's disgusting."

"Yeah, it might be disgusting, but you don't have anyone else to help you right now. You need someone."

"You don't want to help me, Mercedes."

"I do, Ade. I do want to help you. You think this is going to be the only day that you have morning sickness? There's going to be more and more puking, and it might not ever stop until you have this baby. Speaking of which," Mercedes lifted up Ada's shirt. "Good morning, baby." She out the shirt back down and looked at her sister. "Ada, you can't do this on your own, and I won't let you. If it's the middle of the night and you need something, wake me up. Don't sit here and suffer by yourself. What if you cleaned it up with something that was bad for you or something?"

"I used some baking soda and vinegar. I'm not an idiot."

"Fine. But promise me that if you need anything else, you'll let me know. Even if I'm at school or something, call me, text me, I'll figure something out. Just don't do it alone. Ok?"

"Mercedes."

"Ada."

The sisters stared at one another. Ada rolled her eyes. "Fine."

"Thank you. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to lay here with you until Sam gets here. Can I do that?"

Ada didn't say anything. Instead, she winced and put her hands on her stomach.

Mercedes shot up. "Are you ok? Are you gonna be sick again?"

"No, just don't make any sudden movements. It makes it worse."

"Alright, I'm sorry." Mercedes laid back down slowly and smoothed her sister's hair down gently.

"I'm sorry that I did this. I really didn't mean to." Ada's voice was thick with emotion.

Hearing her sister's apology made Mercedes tear up. "Shh. It's okay. We're just gonna take it one day at a time." Mercedes didn't know if she believed her own words. If everything would really be okay. She had to get someone else's help from somewhere.


	10. When You Really Love Someone

Whew, y'all. Today has been the afternoon/evening from hell. I know it's been a while, I'll explain later lol. But for right now here's a LENGTHY chapter for y'all. Apologies for any typos as always!

* * *

Mercedes stepped out of the door that Sam had opened for her as she walked into the sandwich shop. Stevie and Stacy had been wanting to go to the lake, so Mercedes decided that they could all go and she could take her own siblings. Then, she decided to make it a date with Sam. "Thank you, kind sir."

Sam smiled as she walked in behind her, taking her hand in his. "I'm really glad we got to come here one last time before it got too cold."

"Yeah, me too."

They sat at a table and waited for one of the waiters to come and take their orders. Nothing was said until Sam spoke up. "You know, this is our first time here as a couple."

"It is. I've noticed that as well." Mercedes smiled as she looked around at all the people in the building. She and Sam used to come here all the time as kids. They came almost every week. Now, they come almost every month. You wouldn't believe all the money they spent buying tokens.

"It's crazy how we've always been here and taken pictures together in that photo booth. How did we not make out in between pictures?"

Mercedes laughed. "Maybe because by time we would've made out with one another, I already had a boyfriend. And you were just the guy had a crush on that I could never even look at for a certain amount of time before he thought I was weird."

"Well, now, you can look at me as much as you want. I'm all yours."

"That's fantastic." Mercedes took his hand and kissed it as a waiter came to ask them what they wanted to drink.

"Actually, we're ready to order. Like our sandwiches." Sam said.

The waiter nodded. "Alright, go ahead."

"Okay." Mercedes looked down at the menu. I'll have the cuban sandwich with a small cookies and cream milkshake, and he'll have the reuben on sourdough with a mexican hot chocolate milkshake. And one large cheese fry."

The waiter repeated their order back to them for confirmation before heading off. Sam chuckled. "You're the best damn meal orderer I've ever seen in my life."

Mercedes flipped her medium long curly hair over her shoulder. "I know."

The couple continued to talk until their food arrived. Sam thanked the waiter as he walked away. "So how's Ada doing?"

Mercedes shrugged as she took a sip of her milkshake. "She's ok. I don't really know where she's at in her psyche right now, though. Like, she says that she wants to keep the baby and raise it in a nice home with family who loves it."

"What about Nate?"

Nate was Ada's boyfriend since her freshman year at NYU. He was the father.

"She told him, and he said he'd be willing to do whatever it takes."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Mercedes nodded. "Which is good, because we know stuff about him and we have a sense of the type of guy he is, but, in the same breath, this is Ada we're talking about. She's not like everybody else and she's already prone to doing things that she shouldn't sometimes, which is why my parents always told her that she needed to wait until she got out of college and got a husband to even think about having children."

"But she said she didn't really want marriage, they told her that she at least needs a steady job. I remember."

"Exactly. Which, I'm assuming, is the reason that she doesn't want my parents to know. Anyways, when she told Nate about the baby, he said he would step up, do whatever needed to be done, but she told me she didn't want him in the baby's life full time. She said that he could see the baby whenever he wanted, but he couldn't be an actual father to the baby, which is weird, because they're still in a relationship. But besides that, most everything is fine. Jay said he would keep an eye on her this weekend so we could go out. I think we've decided to alternate a little. Just to make sure she eats and stuff. Welfare."

"Gotcha. What about the play?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. The list goes up Tuesday, and I don't even want to know if I'm honest. You know Rachel hasn't even auditioned yet?"

"Yeah, her audition is tomorrow. That's what I heard. But, I've also been hearing that you and Santana kind of kicked ass at your audition."

"True, but I have no doubt that Rachel will kick ass at hers."

"Why are you oh-so concerned with Rachel Berry? _She's Rachel Berry._"

"One word, Sam. Scouts."

"Scouts?"

"Scouts. Talent scouts. They come from colleges like NYU, NYADA, UCLA. Some of the top fine arts academies in the country. They come to plays and productions put on by high schools to look for fresh talent. They do it every year. Mckinley is one of the schools they come to. But you never know who they are. You could be talking to a random nobody, slandering the name of another performer, then find out that you just make yourself look unprofessional in front of a Yale talent scout."

"I thought that talent scouts were for sports?"

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "They're for more than just sports, Sam. Anyways, you never know when said scouts are coming to a show choir competition or coming to your school musical or anything else. If I want a scholarship of some sort, I'm going to have to work super hard. This means I have to stop getting bent out of shape and letting Rachel take everything from me."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. She always puts up such a huge fight that the only person not tired of fighting by the end of it is her."

"Exactly. At that point, I'm over it and I just give her the part or the solo. But not anymore. I've got to start making a difference in myself this year."

The waiter came with their check. Sam pulled out his wallet, but Mercedes stopped him. "I've got it." She got up to go give the money to the cashier and sat back down at the table. "So, I was talking to Santana about this year's prom theme since she let me put her on the committee, and we've been coming up with-"

"Unbelievable." Sam rolled his eyes and got up from the table and headed out of the building towards the lake.

After checking up on the siblings, Mercedes went down to the shore to see Sam sitting on the sand. She went to sit down beside him. "What the hell was that, Sam?"

"Oh, so you're mad?"

"Well, you got up and walked away from me when we were about to have a conversation with nothing to say but a word with syllables separated by an expletive. I'm not mad, but I didn't like it, and I do want an explanation."

"You were talking to Santana about prom ideas? Santana?"

"That's what I said."

"You don't think I want to hear about prom ideas?"

"You're not on the committee, Sam." Mercedes said, irritated. "What is it that you have against Santana lately?"

"I just think it's odd that you auditioned with her and now you're talking to her about prom stuff."

Sam kicked himself in his head. "I'm sorry. It's just that things aren't working out the way that they should."

Mercedes put her hand on his shoulder, and her head on her hand. "Well, how should things be working out? We've been together now for almost two months. Pretty much everyone except my father absolutely loves us being together. What's the problem?"

"The problem is that we've been together for almost two months and that everyone except your father absolutely loves us being together and this makes 4 dates and I still haven't been able to take you on one decent one where I can buy you lunch or dinner or a cool stuffed animal."

"Is this about your dad? I already told you, he's gonna be fine-"

"It's not just about that, though." Sam shot up and looked down at his girlfriend. "It's about how I have to not spend money that I don't absolutely 100% have to spend because I don't know when my mom will need some of it. And how my little sister doesn't know what's going on, and my little brother knows but doesn't think about it because he has me and looks up to me. Other stuff, too. I don't want to ruin our date and all, but it's something that's always on my mind."

Mercedes stood up and took Sam's hand in hers. "Babe, you're not ruining anything. If this is how you feel, you should be able to say it. Yeah, you could've chosen a better time than this, but the date isn't ruined. And I told you that if you had any money problems to let me know."

"You think I want to be your bottom feeder boyfriend, Mercedes? Are you serious? Well, I'm sorry, but I don't want to be some helpless little creature that you can just swoop up under your wing and carry along."

Mercedes dropped Sam's hands and put hers on her hips. "Okay, well, I'm sorry that you're having a hard time and I'm trying to help, Sam. I'm sorry that you're too much of an ingrate to take help that's being offered to you. Maybe if I stopped trying to help, your situation would get better, huh? Maybe that's it?"

"An ingrate? You know, Mercedes, maybe you don't realize it, but all you trying to help me is doing is giving me this awful sense of helplessness. Also, another thing you may not realize. I don't want any help from you. God knows I need it, but I don't want it. Even if you were the last person on earth that I could ask it of, I wouldn't because I'll always feel like you're holding something over my head."

"Since when have you felt that way? We help you guys out all the time, Sam. So that's bullshit and you know it."

"How are you going to tell me what is and isn't bullshit? I'm not 6 years old, _sweetheart_. I think I know how I feel about this particular subject."

Mercedes walked away.

"Where are you going?" Sam yelled as he followed her. "You don't like it when I walk away from you, but here you are. Doing the same thing. Hypocritical much?"

Mercedes stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to face Sam. "I'm walking away for you in an attempt to keep myself from strangling you, _sweetheart_. Because maybe you don't know this, but you're really pissing me off. I'm going home."

Sam smiled as if he had all the power. "How the hell are you gonna get there? I drove _your _car, which means I still have your keys."

"I'll walk or something. Don't worry about me, Sam. I don't want you to feel like I'm holding something over your head." She used his words against him.

"Okay, so we're using that for everything now?"

"You bet." Mercedes began walking off again. Bring my car home in good shape, and my sisters home whenever they're ready. Tell them I'll see them later."

"Mercedes, stop." Sam said, frustrated. Mercedes didn't stop. "Seriously, Cedes. Come back." Mercedes didn't stop.

"How's that going for you, bro?" Stevie came up behind Sam.

"Bad. You think she'll forgive me if I give her a necklace from the gift shop?"

Stevie laughed as he shook his head and patted Sam on the back.

_That boy is getting taller everyday_ Sam thought.

* * *

Sam got out of Mercedes' car and walked into her house to look for her and apologize. Instead of finding Mercedes, he found Jeremy and Ada talking on the couch. "Hey, guys."

Ada said hello to Sam, but Jeremy added something onto the greeting "Hey, Shiner."

"Great. You too? I thought Ada was gonna be the only one calling me that."

Jeremy chuckled. "She was. But then I came along. I didn't want her to be the only one in the family calling you that."

"Awesome. And just when I was _really_ starting to enjoy you being back, Ada." Sam said sarcastically.

Jeremy noticed his sister was missing, "Where's Mercedes?"

Sam stood in the room like a deer in headlights. He thought for sure that Mercedes would've found her way home by now. "What do you mean where is she? She's not here?"

Ada shook her head. "No… I thought you two were together this weekend."

Sam sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. You're right. We were together."

Jeremy stood up. "Okay, so, if you _were_ together, where's my little sister?"

Sam put his hands up in defense. "I didn't hurt her, I swear."

Jeremy furrowed his brows. "What happened?"

"Well," Sam continued. "After a nice swim and a delicious meal, things kind of went in a downward spiral."

This caught Ada's attention. "And, by downward spiral you mean what, exactly?"

Sam took a deep breath. "By downward spiral, I mean we might've had some sort of a screaming match on the shore and stuff."

"And stuff?" Jeremy and Ada replied simultaneously.

Jeremy shook his head, confused. "Alright, let's backtrack here. What was this 'screaming match' about?"

"In a nutshell, my money troubles. Let's just say I used words like bottomfeeder boyfriend and called her a hypocrite whose only intention was to use any money I ask her for as something to hold over my head-"

"Really?" Ada asked. "Why would you say something like that?"

"I'm having a hard time with this whole thing with my dad still, okay? No, I'm not worried so much about him besides the fact that his actions have caused a chain reaction, and said reaction is taking a big toll on me. Look, is Mercedes here or not? Because I have to find her."

"Dude," Jeremy frowned and his eyes widened. "No, no, no. Do not go look for her. She's already pissed at you."

"Yeah, it's best to wait until she cools off some." Ada confirmed.

"I know I shouldn't, but, the way I see it, I have no choice." Sam went back over to the door and put his jacket back on. "I'd rather her be super pissed at me and never want to talk to me again than me finding her pissed at me and lying in a ditch somewhere."

"She's not lying in a ditch somewhere." The siblings talked simultaneously once again.

"Okay, that's great. But I want to be sure." As Sam went to open the door, he was pushed aside by someone trying to get in. He looked down and saw it was Mercedes, who didn't say one word to him as she walked into the living room. "Mercedes."

Mercedes didn't say anything to Sam.

"I'm glad you're ok." Sam said awkwardly. "I was worried about you."

Jeremy had a feeling that he was going to love this. "Hey, sis."

Mercedes looked over at her brother, giving him a tight-lipped smile. "'Sup, Jay?"

Ada looked at Sam, then back at Mercedes. "Hey M. Doing ok?"

Mercedes nodded. "Oh, yeah. Never better. You guys?"

The siblings talked at the same time. Ada said things like "Absolutely wonderful." and "Really great." Jay said "Great, especially since you're not giving us the silent treatment."

Ada nudged Jay for his remark and they both laughed quietly.

Sam decided to try again. "Hey, Mercedes." Mercedes said nothing. Sam couldn't believe it. She was acting like he wasn't even there. He never wanted her to fuss him out so much. "Hey, babe, I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier. I was completely out of line, and I shouldn't have even thought to say it. I know you were just trying to-"

"Ada, Jay, I'm going up to my room if you need anything. Let me know when dinner is ready." And with that, Mercedes was up the stairs.

Jeremy shook his head and started laughing. "Dude, what in the hell did you do?"

Ada joined in. "Right? She wouldn't even talk to you. You must've made her real mad. I mean, she pushed right by you and didn't even say excuse me or anything until she knew for sure that it was you. You fucked up, Shiner."

"Will you _please _stop calling me that?" Sam pleaded to the siblings. Both of whom shook their heads. "Whatever. Look, I'm not leaving until she talks to me." Sam walked over to the sectional and sat down beside Ada.

"You're gonna be sitting there for a long ass time, bro." Jeremy chuckled as he walked out of the room. "'Hey, sis.' ''Sup, Jay?'" He said reenacting the exchange between him and his sister and laughing harder.

Ada was loving this along with her brother. "'Hey, M. Doing ok?'"

Jeremy was Mercedes again. "Oh yeah. Never better."

The two older siblings burst into loud, boisterous laughter, leaving Sam feeling defeated. There was a knock at the door, and Sam was quick to answer it. Ada said something about answering doors that weren't technically his. Sam ignored her and opened it anyways. It was Santana.

Santana looked at Sam and laughed in his face. "Let me tell you something Trouty. You fucked up."

Sam rolled his eyes once again. "Yeah, thanks, Satan. We already covered that."

"We tried telling him." Jeremy shouted.

Santana just laughed and looked over to Ada. "She in her room?" Ada nodded, and Santana jogged up the stairs. She knocked on Mercedes' door. When the door was opened, Santana saw Mercedes' eyes were filled with anger. If Santana was honest, she expected her friend to be sad rather than angry. She kinda liked angry Mercedes. Angry Mercedes made for a good duet partner. "Holy shit. Was the fight that bad?" Santana walked into the room and shut the door behind her.

"Who the hell does he think he is? He's worried about the fear of having someone hold something over his head? Is he serious? You know something, Santana? I tell him everything. The only thing I didn't tell him about was me getting my first period. Which, obviously, I didn't tell him about because he's a guy. But everything else? I just spewed out to him. Just like I do with you! What is his problem? If I'm trying to help him, he should at least let me help him. Matter of fact, he doesn't even have to let me help him. He can at least be _grateful_ that I care enough to offer him help. That's all I ask. Is that too much?"

"It's a lot. Not too much, but you are pushing it a little." Santana smiled.

"I'm not kidding, Santana. This is serious."

"Well, you're not gonna break up with him, are you?"

"What? Of course not." Mercedes shook her head. "We're not on the rocks or anything. It would just be nice to feel appreciated rather than unwanted."

"But, when you think about it, it's not really his fault." Santana reasoned. She saw that Mercedes was ready to object, but continued before the chance arose. "No. Don't do that. You're at fault here too, and we both know it. You have a tendency to jump onto things that you don't need to. That's your fault. You hover. Don't try to make this all about him. If the situation were reversed, you would most definitely want some space before somebody came barging in on your privacy-"

"I didn't barge in on anything."

"I'm not finished talking." Santana asserted. "If you were in his shoes, you wouldn't just want someone barging in on your privacy. And yes, you are barging in on his privacy when you're asking him everything about his situation. You two might be best friends, but you don't live under the same roof. That means that he has a right to keep his business to himself. When you're demanding to know everything and offering him all this help, there's no way in hell he doesn't feel the slightest bit smothered. Good news is, it's both of your faults. You're both pretty equal from an objective standpoint. You both need to apologize. Him for talking to you the way he did, and you for smothering him before he was ready. There you go. I've fixed your relationship. You are very welcome."

"You haven't fixed anything, Santana. I'm still giving Sam the silent treatment."

"For how long? He doesn't mean to make you mad, but he's a guy. What's the only thing men have that women don't?"

"Penises?" Mercedes rolled her eyes. "I don't know, Santana."

"Close, but no. I'm talking about masculinity."

"Really, Santana? That's not true."

"Uh, yes it is."

"No, it's not. It's stereotypical."

"And? Stereotypical or not, it's the truth."

"No, because by it being stereotypical, it is, in fact, not truthful. Women have masculinity, too. Just because you don't have as much masculinity as other women, it doesn't mean they don't have it. What about butch lesbians? They have masculinity."

"Oh, gag me with a spoon. Your feminist crap aside, all women lack that pressure that masculinity puts on men. You know, the sense that they want to be the protectors and want to provide for the people they love. That's the masculinity I'm talking about. That's what Sam has, and with your offers, he feels as if you're stripping that from him. Look, if you ask me, both of you just need to kiss and make up already. We both know that it's the only way things are going to get better. Because soon enough, he'll get angry that you're still angry and you'll be ready to make amends, but he'll be too busy being angry at you. Then the cycle continues until one of you breaks up with the other. Just go down there and get'er done." Santana walked over to the door. "Come on. Let's go."

No." Mercedes crossed her arms. "I'm not doing it. Yes, it may be partially my fault, and yes, I might've been stripping him of his masculinity. But that doesn't mean that he can shout at me because of it. There were many other ways that he could've gone about the situation. I'll confront him when I'm ready. Now, you have to go."

"What? Why?"

"Because I picked Sam up from his place this morning, and now, he has no way to get home."

Santana gasped and smiled a bit, "You bitch. Is that why you called me over here?"

Mercedes chuckled slightly. "Maybe."

Santana got a pillow off of Mercedes' bed and threw it at her. "God, I hate you."

Mercedes laughed as she dodged the pillow. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. He's probably just going to stay here until I forgive him. Or, at least, until I start talking to him again."

Santana winced as if she was in pain. "Yikes. Are you serious?"

Mercedes nodded as she smiled. "Yeah. He'll probably call his mom to come get him and his siblings, go home and get his own clothes, get his truck, come here, and pretty much live here until I acknowledge his existence."

"Wow. He's whipped."

"He's not whipped, Santana."

"No, I mean in a good way. He loves you, and he wants to-"

Mercedes shot up from her bed, eyes wide. "No, no, no. Don't say that, Santana."

Santana frowned. "Why can't I say it? Do you not love him back?" She gasped. "Did you tell him that you love him and he didn't say it back?"

"Stop, Tana. No one has said anything about loving someone yet. We've not even been together for 2 months. It's not even that serious."

"How is it not that serious, Mercedes? Look, you might not know this-"

"If I hear those words one more time-"

"_You might not know this,_" Santana repeated. "But you guys have something. Something special. It might not seem special to you just yet, but I see the way you guys look at one another. The way your face lights up when you talk about him-"

"Yeah, well, that's because he's my best friend. Everyone's face lights up when they talk about their best friend. That's their best friend."

"Stop. You love him. I'll prove it. So, Thanksgiving is coming up. School gets out on Thursday. Grease rehearsals all day Friday, right?"

Mercedes nodded. "Yes, that is correct."

"You go with Sam to his grandparents' house in…"

"Detroit."

"Yes, Detroit. Go to Detroit, see his family. Tell them you're together. While you're up there, I want you to figure out if you could see that being your life."

"You don't think it's a little too soon for all that?"

Santana kept going, "Just picture all his aryan family members as little chocolate vanilla swirl children, and tell me that you don't feel anything. If you can tell me that you 100% don't get the feels when you picture that, then I'll put the love thing to rest. But if you can't tell me that, you need to think about it more. You also need to let Sam know."

Mercedes shook her head, fighting a smile at the thought of 'chocolate vanilla swirl babies' with Sam. She already got all the feels before she even got to Detroit. How was she supposed to tell Santana that? Mercedes decided to keep this information to herself. "That's crazy, Santana. Why should I pay attention to anything you're saying right now? I don't see you and Brittany pronouncing your love for one another everywhere you go."

"Because everything I'm saying is very accurate. I've seen too many relationships go bad because someone was afraid to say the words 'I love you'. True love is something that's recognized very early on in a relationship. If you and Sam have it, you two need to get it out in the open. If you don't, things will get really awkward and it'll just cause a huge upset for the both of you." Santana was trying to sell Mercedes on the idea of loving Sam, but she still looked skeptical. Santana walked over to Mercedes and sat down beside her. "You don't think your parents felt something when they first met? That shock. The electricity that shoots down your spine when they even glance at one another? Hell, they have six kids, and they're still there for each other. Didn't they get married when they were like… our age?"

Mercedes nodded and smiled. "Yeah. They got married the day my dad turned 18. And everyone around them told them that they were crazy."

"And everyone around them was wrong. If you even think, Mercedes, for a second, that there's something deeper than this high school stuff between you and Sam, you look into it. I'm telling you, don't let your short-term feelings get in the way of your long-term ones. Be open to the idea of loving him."

Mercedes sat there for a while in silence. She knew Santana was right, and she hated it. Loving Sam was not something Mercedes thought she was ready for. What if she loved him and he didn't love her back? Even if it was true love, Sam wouldn't know anything about that. He'd never had a girlfriend for longer than 5 minutes. Mercedes had to get this off of her chest. She didn't want to, but she had to. She had to talk to Sam about it. She got up and walked out of the room only to be called back by Santana.

"Where do you think you're going? We're having a conversation about love and life, here."

"I'm doing it. I'm talking to Sam about what we just talked about."

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Bitch, didn't you just tell me to look into this?"

"Well, yeah but I meant by looking for signs in the Evans Aryan Brotherhood and Cosmopolitan magazines. Not talking to the guy directly. So I repeat, are you _sure_ you want to talk to Sam about this _right now?"_

Was she sure? Was she sure? Hell no, she wasn't sure. Two months into a relationship, and Mercedes was about to tell the guy that she might love him? Who does that? "Yeah, I'm sure. If there's a possibility he could love me back, then that's a good thing. If not, then I'll just have to be okay with that." If not, she'll throw everything in sight at him before coming back up to her room and crying herself to death.

Santana smiled as she went to Mercedes and placed her hand on her shoulder gently. "You're the worst liar I know."

"Okay, thanks for the confidence, Santana. Thanks a lot."

"I'm sorry. Just go down there and do it. If he doesn't feel the same, fuck him. We'll find you a new man. A feistier, sexier one."

Mercedes rolled her eyes as she walked out of the room. "I'm not going out with Alejandro. You can forget about that."

"But he's got the most dreamy ojos." Santana mocked Mercedes and laughed. When they were little, Mercedes always had a crush on Santana's older cousin, Alejandro. But since he's 8 years older than them, Santana always took delight in teasing Mercedes about it.

Mercedes chuckled as she went downstairs to go find Sam. She went into the kitchen to get a bottle of water and back to the living room. When she didn't see him, she asked Jeremy where he was.

"Quick to forgive this time, don't you think?"

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah, I know. Believe me. I want anything but to apologize or whatever right now, but there's something important we need to talk about."

"Something important, huh? Something like what?"

"Something important, Jay. That's it."

"You're gonna tell him you love him?"

Mercedes nearly choked on her water when she heard her brother say that. "No. No, that's not what I'm going to do."

"Okay, so you're going to tell him that you're falling for him?"

"I don't know yet, Jay."

"But you sure that you do? I mean, I'm guessing you are because you're trying to find him and talk to him. But love? You sure you ready for that?"

Why was that the question that everyone asked? "No, but what've I got to lose, right?"

"You should wait until you're sure, Cedes. You don't want to pour your heart out to Sam all for him to not feel those same feelings."

"You think it's too soon, don't you?" Mercedes asked doubtedly. "I knew it. You think that we're rushing into things and you think that we should slow down. You don't even really want us together, do you? You probably-"

"It's not that." Jeremy walked closer to Mercedes. "It's just that I don't think that you know exactly what you're doing. Yes, you've been in relationships before, and yes, you've loved maybe one or two of those guys, but Sam? I'm not trying to discourage you or anything, but you need to think about this. When was the last time you and Sam had a conversation during which your romantic feelings for one another didn't get in the way?" Mercedes didn't reply. "You don't think that this conversation will have an impact on your future conversations?" Jeremy put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm only trying to watch out for you sis, that's all. Trying to keep your heart from being torn. I don't want whatever it is that you and Sam have to be disrupted by this hurricane of emotions you might be feeling at the moment. You should wait a while. At least until you're absolutely sure that you can see a future with him in it as your romantic person. Whether that be a boyfriend or a husband. You need to be sure."

"My heart will stay intact, Jeremy. I might not be completely sure, but I know I can see a future with Sam. This is something that's been deep inside of me for the past 12 years. That's gotta mean something, right? Even if it doesn't, I'm not going to let the fear of my heart being torn get in the way of it."

"So, you really do love him, then? Like it's official?"

Mercedes hesitated to speak. "Nothing is official… yet. I don't know. Maybe. There's a possibility. I do know that Sam is very important to me and I know that he's not a person I ever plan on losing. That's in both a romantic and unromantic way. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to find Sam and tell him that myself. Where is he?"

Jeremy smiled for a bit before hugging his sister. "I love you, Mercedes. And, if there's ever anything you need, anything you want to get advice on, or just talk about in general, I'll be right here. Okay?"

Mercedes nodded. She didn't know why her brother was acting so weirdly. "Okay, thanks."

"He's in the game room."

"Alright." Mercedes looked at her brother one last time before going to find Sam again. She almost thought her brother had lied to her when she walked by the game room and didn't hear anything. She opened the door to see Sam sitting at the table in the room with his head down. Mercedes took notice of the papers that were balled up and thrown all around the room. No electronics were on. Neither were the lights, which led Mercedes to wonder why Sam was in there in the first place. When she asked him, she didn't receive a response. She was about to get angry when she suddenly heard a slight snore coming from her boyfriend. She walked over to him and laid her hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him awake.

"Oh, Mercedes." Sam said as if he was shocked. "Do you need the room? I'm sorry. I'll be out in a couple seconds. Just…" Sam shot up and raced to clean up all the mess that was scattered all around them. "Just let me get this up, and I'll be out of your way."

Mercedes started to just let him leave, but she knew that in order for them to work, the doubt needed to be taken care of. "Stop, Sam." Mercedes mumbled. "Sam." When she saw that Sam was still scurrying around, she spoke louder. "Sam, can you just wait a minute, please?"

Sam stood abruptly, his head still groggy from the sleep. "I'm sorry, did you say something to me?"

Mercedes looked down to the ground. "What's with all the papers? I thought you were a good basketball player?" She smiled slightly and motioned to the floor.

Sam smiled brightly, his voice calm. "You're talking to me. You're meaning to do this, right? Like, you're not just talking to me for a second to just to stop the next? Because you've done that before."

Mercedes laughed. "Yes, I've done that before, but no, not this time. What's with all the papers?" Mercedes walked over to where Sam slept to read some of the papers that were on the table.

Sam's smile faded. "Oh. I tried to write you a letter or something to apologize, but it never really worked out." He paused. "I am sorry, by the way. Super sorry. That's why it was so hard to write something because it all sounded either too pitiful or as if I was coming off as a Nazi or something trying to strongarm you. Which I actually am."

Mercedes looked up from the table questioningly. "A Nazi trying to strongarm me?"

Sam laughed as his cheeks turned red. "No. Pitiful."

Mercedes laughed again. "Okay, then. Well, you can continue to work on these letters, but I want to apologize first. I also wanted to talk to you about something."

Sam nodded slowly. "Alright. Do you want me to sit down? Do you want to sit down? That came out wrong. I know you can sit down if you want. It's your house and I know you're very independent. You like to think for yourself. I think I'll sit down now." Sam walked briskly over to a bean bag and sat down, feeling the room get as hot as his cheeks.

Mercedes sat down across from Sam and leaned over to him, giving him a soft, lingering kiss.

Sam smiled. "So, I guess this means we're made up, then."

Mercedes giggled. "Not quite. Like I said, there is something I need to talk to you about." She took a deep breath. "I'm not going to give you that whole speech on how you're my best friend and stuff, but I do need to say this. We're a different type of friends. We have a different type of friendship. We've had a good run so far, but you were right. Some things just aren't working out the way that they're supposed to."

"Mercedes, no. Please don't do this Mercedes. Don't do this. Not now. This is just a rough time for me right now, but it'll get better. I knew things were bad for you, but I didn't know that it was this bad. Please, just give us some time to figure this out. We can-"

"Sam, what in God's name are you talking about?" Mercedes frowned before gasping. "Oh, Sam, no. I'm not breaking up with you. And things aren't bad at all, just so you know. AND I'm _really_ into us and what we have. That's not something you need to be worried about. Maybe I should've said that differently. Can I start over?"

Sam took a second to relax before nodding. "Yeah, go ahead. Whenever you're ready."

"Okay. Do you remember when we first got Prince and he was so interested in everything, but there were a couple things he was really interested in and whenever those things happened he was really attentive?"

Sam nodded slowly. "Yeah. I remember this one time you were playing the piano and singing and he just sat there and watched you. It was creepy. Cute, but creepy."

"Exactly like that." A smile came to Mercedes' face. "Well, me and Prince are alike in that way. We have a certain amount of interest in some things, and a sizable one in other things. With you being my best friend, I'm interested in all parts of your life. What's happening with your dad is one of the things I'm tuned in with right now. I know it may not seem like it, but whatever happens to you happens to me. Or, at least it feels that way. When Stevie broke his arm, I was there. We were the first ones to sign his cast."

"Yeah and you almost broke _my_ arm so that I wouldn't write 'Stevie's a nerd' on it in bubble letters."

The couple laughed.

"Sure did. And when Stacy was celebrating her test scores—"

"You got her favorite cake to go with the ice cream because Mom forgot to order it in time. That party would've sucked without you, you know?"

Mercedes nodded repeatedly, "Uh huh. We kind of have Jay to thank for that though."

"God, I know. Who would've thought that we would've benefited from him working at a bakery?"

The two laughed again.

"See?" Mercedes referenced the examples. So naturally, whenever something happens to your dad, I'm going to be there. That's just the way it is. But when it's affecting you like this and when I can see how bad it's messing with you, I'm also going to do everything in my power to help you. I'm sorry that my offers to help you weren't actually helping you. I thought that what I was doing was the most I could do. And we both know I kind of don't know how to back off when people ask me to." She chuckled and, after a pause, took his hands in hers. "No one is holding anything over your head. And you're not a bottomfeeder boyfriend. I'm not going to offer anything grand anymore. But if you need help, you need to ask. And if you ask, no one can fault you for that. So, just promise me that you'll do that? I'll never say anything else about it, but you have to stop resisting help."

Sam nodded. "I promise. It's just difficult, I guess. My dad is supposed to be the head of the family. Then he bows out, and I have to do it. My dad has been raising me to bring home the bacon, and my turn came sooner than I thought it would."

Mercedes cursed Santana internally, realizing she was right. "You're 16, Sam. You're a junior in high school. You're not supposed to be ready to 'bring home the bacon' yet. You're probably going to need lots of help. Just ask next time."

"Alright. What's next?"

Mercedes was confused. "Huh?"

"No. I mean, you said that you wanted to apologize and that you had something to talk about."

"Oh, yeah." Mercedes completely forgot about that. She had been going from one heartfelt conversation to another today. It was draining. She almost retreated once again, thinking that they didn't really need to talk about that at the moment.

"Mercedes?" Sam waved his hand in her face. "You ok? Something wrong?"

"No, not really." Mercedes shook her head rapidly, coming out of her thoughts. "Okay. Umm…" Mercedes cleared her throat anxiously. "This is weird for me to say, so just bear with me. Alright, so, these feelings that we have for one another. We've been feeling them for most of our lives. Even though we haven't always know what those feelings were, they've been there. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, totally."

"Good. So, I've been talking with certain people and I've just been thinking. What are these feelings _really_? Is it just a like thing that I have with you, or is it something deeper. Like-"

"Like love? Something deeper like love?"

"I don't exactly know if it's love yet, but I definitely think that it could be one day in the near future. I think I'm falling for you, Sam. And, I don't mean just the regular teenage falling. I mean I can see myself having a life with you. I can see us being there for each other and achieving our dreams together. And you're already introducing me to new parts of myself and making me want to be better. Not just for you, but for me." Mercedes waited for Sam to say something, anything. She felt like she was being suffocated by the silence. "Okay. I get it. I've scared you. It's alright." Tears sprang to her eyes. "You know what? I know what you're thinking, and you're right. It's way too soon for this. I shouldn't have come down here."

Sam sighed and put his head on his hands. "That's not what I'm thinking, Merce." He tried to find the right words to say as he lifted his head. "I'm just so glad to hear you say that." An almost child-like smile came to his face. "I've been feeling that way ever since before we even got together. Then we got together and I had no idea what to expect." He stood up and paced around the room. "At first, I was so confused and so worried about what we were. I mean, so much of us being boyfriend and girlfriend was just a figment of my imagination and when we got together, I could never figure out what was a part of our actual relationship and what was still just my imagination. But to know that you feel the same is just… amazing." He pulled her up from the ground and squeezed her tightly. He only let her go once she told him that she couldn't breathe. "Sorry about that. I just can't believe that you really feel the same way. It's crazy. I also didn't really know if you'd be ready for something like this so soon. But you are, which is even crazier."

Mercedes looked at Sam sadly. "Sam, I'm _not _ready for something like that yet… which is why I came to tell you that I didn't plan on actually professing my love to you or anything. Yes, I get lost in my thoughts of a future with you, and yeah, whenever you talk or sing or do anything, my stomach does somersaults because I really imagine you singing at our wedding one day." As Mercedes was talking, Sam's face broke out into the goofiest smile she had ever seen. "And that smile. Damn, that smile." Mercedes' throat tightened causing her voice to become really high pitched. "Your smile is like looking in the doe eyes of the cutest puppy ever who's wearing a little superman suit that's actually a little angel baby thing." The couple both laughed, and Mercedes felt her eyes get misty. "Your smile is probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Nothing makes me happier than seeing you happy or excited about something. But I'm still not ready to just be in love with you-"

"But if you're already in love with me, Mercedes, then what's the problem?" Sam's smiled faded, and now he just looked confused.

"The problem is that I don't want to assume that this is something better than I've ever had just because I've had these feelings for you for so long. I mean, like you said, it can be hard to discern whether something is fact or fiction when you've been dreaming about it forever. Maybe we should just think about taking it a little slow before we jump to conclusions on things?"

"So, what does that mean?"

"What that means is that," Mercedes laced their fingers together. "I might love you, but I think that it's better for us to just be a regular couple for now. Don't worry about all the lovey dovey feelings. Let's just be a couple who makes out in janitor's closets and go to the same sandwich shop at the lake and gets the same large order of cheese fries everytime, trying to share them, only to throw them away each time because they're disgusting and they _never_ get any better."

"They do taste pretty disgusting. You've got a point. We definitely shouldn't get those next time." Sam chuckled and Mercedes cackled.

Mercedes struggled to stop her laughter for a bit. After a few seconds, she laid her head against his chest and sighed, getting serious. "But you get it, though, right? Like, you're okay with what I said we should do?"

Sam separated their hands and put his arms around Mercedes as he kissed the top of her head. "Totally. I get that this may be scary for you. But just know that when it comes to you, Merce, I'm not afraid of _anything_. So, when you're ready to do this, I'll be ready too. And I'm not going anywhere in the meantime.."

Mercedes tightened her grip around Sam, holding him. "Thank you." She pulled back and smiled at him sweetly.

Sam smiled back, "No problem."

She puckered her lips and closed her eyes. "Gimme a smooch."

Sam snaked his hands around Mercedes' waist and pulled her in, giving her a simple, romantic kiss. At first, Mercedes was a little surprised, but she went along before smiling into the kiss.

"I really didn't expect for you two to make up so quickly." Jeremy laughed.

Sam jumped away from Mercedes. "Jay, what the hell, man?"

"What were you doing there?" Mercedes asked. "How long were you there?" She gasped. "Were you listening to our entire conversation?"

Jeremy doubled over in laughter. "I wasn't here the entire time, but I heard that whole speech you gave about 'taking it slow'" He mocked his sister's voice, sound way too sentimental. "You have got to be kidding me. I don't understand. Why do you even-"

"What happens in my relationship is _my_ business, Jeremy. And we were having a really romantic make up moment before you interrupted. Plus, you just told me that we should take it slow." Mercedes was growing tired of her brother eavesdropping on her conversations with Sam. Any time she and Sam had gotten to a place in the house where they thought they were alone, there he was. It was like he was their babysitter. "And I thought Ada was the eavesdropper of the day."

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Speaking of Ada, she thinks she's got pregnancy mask or something? Is that what it's called? Anyways, she's kind of freaking out right now, she's in your room, and you should probably go up and check on her."

Mercedes looked at her brother like he was crazy. "Freaking out? Jay! Why didn't you come get me sooner?" Mercedes walked quickly up the stairs and into her room. This was not a good time for Ada to be freaking out. If she was freaking out, there was a chance that their parents would find out before they could come up with some sort of solution. And if that happened, all hell would most certainly break loose. When Mercedes got to her room, she saw her sister was sitting on the bed with her knees pulled up to her chest, watching a movie. "Hey. You alright?"

Ada talked to her sister while still watching the movie. "Yeah, great. What's up?"

"Jay told me you were freaking out. What's wrong? What happened?" Mercedes heard her brother snicker from the door.

"I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm watching Abominable, finally."

"Wait," Mercedes frowned, "that disney movie with the yeti and the adorable asian boy?"

"Well," Ada stuffed some popcorn into her mouth. "It's not a Disney movie and Yi's a _teenage girl_, but yeah. I never got to see it in Manhattan; I was waayy too busy and, movies are waayyyyy too expensive. It's ridiculous."

"Movies are kind of expensive everywhere, Ada. So there's nothing wrong with you? You're totally fine?"

"I mean, yeah, but everything is more expensive in New York. Duh. And yeah I'm good never better. Wanna join me? I just started it like twenty minutes ago." Ada moved over from her spot on the bed to give Mercedes some room.

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah, just give me one second." She slowly backed out of the room.

"Want me to pause it for you?"

"No, I'll only be a second." Mercedes turned around and saw her brother as he vanished from the doorframe. Mercedes walked quickly down the hallway and she saw her brother go in the bathroom. She got there before he could close the door and pushed it open. "What the fuck?" She whispered angrily.

Jeremy had his hand over his mouth so that his sister couldn't see his smile. "She was really going crazy when I left her, man. It was wild. I thought she was having a breakdown or something."

"Don't do that." Mercedes pushed her brother. "You knew how scared I would get. Who does some shit like that? She's pregnant, Jay. You don't pull pranks that involve pregnant women."

"You know what, Mercedes? You're right. That was very wrong of me to do. I am incredibly sorry." Jeremy said sincerely. He paused and smiled. "But you most definitely should've seen your face when I told you that Ada was flipping out." He doubled over in laughter.

"If you ever think of pulling some foolishness like that again," Mercedes got into her brother's personal space. "I will kill you. I will take you into a dark, dark alley and I will gut you like a fucking fish. Do you hear me? Do you understand? Don't you ever do something like that. You scared the shit out of me."

Jeremy had gotten serious now. If he was honest, his sister was scaring the shit out of him at the moment. "You're fucking crazy. You know that? I really, truly think you might be losing your mind."

Mercedes smirked slyly. "Don't mess with my sister, fool. Now, go downstairs and entertain my boyfriend until this movie is over. Please and thank you!" She walked out of the bathroom toward her room.

Jeremy shook his head. "Why should I have to entertain him? He's your boyfriend."

"Oh, please. You and Sam hanging out is nothing but a normal weeknight." Mercedes walked into her room and sat on the bed beside her sister. "Ok, catch me up."

"Yeah. Popcorn?" Ada handed the bowl over to Mercedes as she brought her up to speed.

Towards the end of the movie, Ada paused it, saying that she had to go to the bathroom. Once she got back on the bed, she noticed that Mercedes was staring at her. "What are you doing? Will you stop it? You're looking at me like that twin from The Shining."

Mercedes chuckled and looked at her sister beside her. "I love you, Ade. I know that we've fought and fussed and stuff over the past few years, but you're my big sister. And you're the only one I've got."

Ada smiled at her sister. "I never wanted you to feel like I was purposefully being a bitch. Especially to you."

"No, it's fine." Mercedes shook her head. "You were going through it. And you needed help. I know it had nothing to do with me."

"Yeah, but I hurt you. Probably scarred you for life. You know I'd take it all back if I could." Ada looked down at the bed. "I never meant for you to see me that day—"

"It's okay, Ada." Mercedes grabbed her sister's hand and squeezed it. "I know you wouldn't have done it like that if there wasn't something wrong."

"I never would've even done it. At all."

"I know. It's okay. We're okay. You're okay, right?"

"Yeah, I'm as good as I can be right now." Ada nodded. "Can I say something, though? Offer you a piece of unrelated and unsolicited advice?"

Mercedes smiled a bit, "I'm scared, but I'm going to say yes."

"Nothing to be scared of, I promise." Ada smiled back. "Look, whether this is something you know now or you come to know later, when you really care about someone, and you really love them, you should tell them. And you shouldn't be afraid to tell them. Because that's how you lose them. Fear will drive out the best people in your life. So don't be afraid."

Mercedes twisted her lips to one side and nodded. She knew what this was about. She laid her head on Ada's shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you too, Mercy." Ada pressed play on the remote and they watched the rest of the movie.

The movie ended, and the sisters sat on the bed talking about how good it was. Mercedes was the first to say something that didn't pertain to the movie. "Hey, I need to go downstairs really quick. I just realized that I left Sam and Jeremy down there by himself, and we have some sort of unfinished business. I'll be right back."

"Alright. Don't take too long. I've got more movies to watch if you can stay up long enough."

"Are you kidding? I don't know if you know this, but I once stayed up for a full 40 hours just for no reason. Actually, it was because Sue made me do it. But I actually felt pretty great." Mercedes chuckled as she walked out of the room. When she got downstairs, she saw Sam asleep on the couch. She smiled and sat beside him. After looking at him for a minute or so, she leaned over and shook him slightly to wake him for the second time that day. "Sammy…" She laughed quietly when he saw that his eyes had jumped. This meant that he was awake. She kissed him on the cheek. Then, on the other, then on the lips, after which he suddenly arose as if he was in a deep sleep.

"Whoa." Sam rubbed his eyes sleepily. "True love's kiss. Works every time." He smiled.

Mercedes laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. "I hate you. I know you just wanted me to kiss you, dumbass."

Sam stopped rubbing his eyes and smiled. "But it worked, did it not?"

Mercedes shoved Sam onto the floor. He quickly shot up and began to attack her by tickling her. She kept squirming, trying to get out of his grasp, but he was too strong. "Stop, please." Her sentences were interrupted by laughter. "I can't take it... I'm serious." Her laughs sounded almost like cries. "I'm going to pee on you."

When Sam finally eased up on her, she had tears that had rolled down her face and tears that were still falling from her eyes. "Wow. I got you pretty good, I'm guessing."

"I hate you, asshole."

"What's with all the mean words, woman? Besides, I highly doubt that you hated me that much." Sam gave Mercedes a kiss and got up to get his things. "I'm about to head home. It's getting pretty late."

Mercedes got up and stopped him. "You can sleep here."

"I mean I could, but I don't know."

"You could sleep in Ada's room… with me."

"Is that a good idea?"

"You can sleep on the floor if you need to. Or I can. If that would make you more comfortable."

"I can't sleep in Ada's room, Mercedes."

"Okay? We've got other rooms. I just don't think you should be going home so late. Especially because you were just asleep. Look, if you want, you can just sleep on the couch or something. We have enough beds. You'll find some place. Just stay here, Sam."

"No, I need to go home. I haven't called my mom, so she's probably worried. My little siblings are probably up waiting, too. And there's school tomorrow. I just need to get home. Walk me out?"

Mercedes grunted. She didn't want him out so late, but she knew that trying to persuade him to stay wouldn't work. "Yeah. I'll walk you out. Even though I think you should stay-"

"_Mercedes._" Sam said sternly as he opened the front door.

"Fine. I'm sorry."

They walked out to Sam's truck. Sam went to hug Mercedes, but stopped. "Hey, is your sister alright? What happened earlier?"

Mercedes smiled. She should've known that he would worry regardless of whether he knew or not. "Don't worry. It was just some prank Jay was playing on me. She's fine." Mercedes took his hands in hers, looking up at him.

The moment felt so romantic. With the sounds of crickets and the sight of the night being illuminated by the moon and the many stars in the sky. Mercedes almost wanted to just run off somewhere with Sam and never look back. _I guess love does make you do crazy things._ She thought. She wrapped her arms around the nape of his neck and pulled him down to her, taking notice of his piercing eyes that were a sea of green and silver. The night was slightly windy and she felt a cool breeze on the back of her neck as their lips touched, sending shivers down her spine. His lips were soft, and Mercedes could feel the chapstick on both their lips being transferred. The kiss was electric, yet in a subtle, romantic way. Sam was the only person Mercedes had ever been with who made her feel that way. Though their kisses were often unsteady, she felt the passion behind every one. It seemed that even the crickets quietened down, as not to disturb the couple. Their lips stayed locked until neither of them could breathe. And, even then, when they filled their lungs with more oxygen, both felt oxygen-deprived. No amount of breathing could compare to how alive they felt whenever their lips touched.

"Sam," Mercedes decided to take her sister's advice and just come out with it. "I love you."

Sam frowned slightly, "I thought you didn't want to do that? You now, say it like that. We're taking it slow. What changed?"

Mercedes shook her head. "Nothing changed. We're still taking it slow. But I can't be afraid of loving you. I have to love you bravely and fiercely and unapologetically. That's the only way we've ever worked, right? So I love you, Sam."

Sam nodded. "I love you too, Mercedes."

The couple parted and Mercedes let Sam get in his truck, watching his tailights from her driveway until they became invisible. She looked around her once more, feeling that cool wind, and walked back into the house.


	11. Story of My Life Pt I

Hey, y'all! So in this chapter, we learn a little more about Ada and her... um... situation. LOL. This is a two-parter and it's pretty lengthy, I'll be posting part 2 within the next week. Enjoy and sorry for any typos!

* * *

Mercedes walked down the hallway to the auditorium with Sam in tow. "Will you speed up?"

Sam grunted with nearly every step he took. "Why?" He whined. "Seriously, you did great on your audition. You don't need to spy on Rachel."

"I know I don't need to spy on Rachel and I know I'm better than her."

"I…I just said you did good on your audition. I never actually said you were better than her." Sam saw the look that Mercedes was giving him. "But you totally are. You're the best, actually."

"Nice to know someone appreciates me."

Santana walked up behind the couple, scaring them. "I've always appreciated you. Remember that."

Mercedes put her hand on her chest. "God, Santana. Don't do that. What'd you hear?"

"I heard that they want to give the part to you, but they think Rachel could do more with it. Also, I should add that she totally bombed her script reading." Santana looked over at Mercedes and smiled.

Larissa came up behind Santana. "Ok, well, she didn't totally bomb it. But she did do pretty bad."

Mercedes scoffed. "Do more with it? What the hell does that even mean? And, thanks, Larissa. Just for clearing that all up. Santana has the tendency to over exaggerate."

"First of all, I never overexaggerate. Secondly, I don't know what 'do more with it' means," Santana shrugged. "But whatever it means, they said they're going to watch what you do over the next week or so just to see what you bring to the table."

"Don't worry about it, Mercedes. If they want you, they want you. They know that you'll be able to come through for them. Plus, Rachel is just now singing. Maybe she'll totally bomb this too." Sam said.

"For the record, she never totally bombed anything. She just did really, really bad." Larissa pointed out.

"It doesn't matter," Mercedes said assertively. "Everybody shut up and follow me." Mercedes crouched down slightly and walked into the auditorium with her friends. They all sat down in one of the far back rows where no one could see them.

"Someone please tell me why we're up here again?" Larissa questioned.

"Scouting the competition," Mercedes whispered. "Especially since they said that they want to see what I can do. We're trying to see what Rachel's got in her back pocket so that I can upgrade my own." She watched Rachel intently. "Wait." She glanced at Larissa quickly. "You were in Vocal Adrenaline _and_ you were captain of the Xplosives. How do you not know what spying looks like?"

Larissa frowned. "I never actually did any of that. I'm not exactly the spying type. I like to go into something with a good sense of self and win that way rather than beating out everyone else because I know what they're doing."

"You know something, Larissa?" Mercedes smiled sarcastically. "That's great. That is just amazing." Her face became serious as she looked back to where Rachel was. "But that's not how it works."

"Mercedes is right." Santana nodded. "Rachel is one sneaky conniving bitch. She'll do whatever it takes to get to the top. In order to subdue her, we have to beat her at her own game."

As Rachel finished her solo, Mr. Schue spoke. "Wow, Rachel. That was wonderful."

Rachel smiled. "Why, thank you, Mr. Schue. Artie, I hope you enjoyed as well. So, when will I be getting the script?"

Artie looked confused. "The script?"

She nodded. "For rehearsing. I don't want to just get up on the stage opening night without knowing my lines." Rachel laughed.

Mr. Schue shook his head. "You don't get the script until you get the part, Rachel."

"Yeah." Artie agreed. "Did you forget how a play works?" Artie said jokingly.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused." Rachel frowned. "Did I not get the part?"

"We haven't decided yet." Mr. Schue said. "Mercedes and a few other people also auditioned for the part. You and Mercedes are the main two we're considering, but of course that's no surprise. That's why there were no callbacks for the part. We didn't really need any. We already knew who our top two would be. You and Mercedes."

"That makes no sense." Rachel protested. "Was Mercedes… Was she better than me?"

Mr. Schue tried to find the right words to answer Rachel's question. "Well-"

"The list will be posted during lunch tomorrow, Rachel." Artie intervened before Will could stick his foot in his mouth. "Thank you for auditioning."

"Thank you for your time." Rachel nodded quietly and walked off of the stage.

"Ha." Mercedes whispered. "Looks someone besides me is trying to put a stop to this nonsense."

"They're not trying to put a stop to anything, Mercedes." Sam said. "They're just letting her know that the part hasn't been assigned yet."

Santana rolled her eyes and looked at Mercedes. "Okay. I know he's your boyfriend and all, but if he's going to keep villainizing us like this, he's going to have to stop coming along on these spy trips. At least Bambi over here can keep her mouth shut."

"I can hear you." Larissa stated.

"Yeah? Then maybe you can stop acting so innocent and partake in the snooping going on right now. Seriously, were you not in Vocal Adrenaline? All you guys did was spy."

"I didn't take part in a lot of that, Santana. I just said that."

Seeing Santana's face, Mercedes interrupted the conversation. "Leave her alone, Tana. She'll get used to it eventually. But as for you," She pointed at her boyfriend. "You need to get with the program. We've brought you along for these almost every time and you always come in with your neutral shit. That's going to stop, or we'll be switching you out for Kurt, who was actually our go-to guy before you got jealous."

"I never got jealous." Sam said. "I just wanted to see what you guys were so into this spying thing for."

"Whatever." Mercedes got up from her seat. "We have to get going anyways. I've got this thing with Ada later."

"Again?" Santana threw her hands up. "Will we ever hang out again? Between your boyfriend and your sister, I pretty much only see you at school. Kinda feels like you've forgotten about me." She only half-joked.

"I invite you, Santana." Mercedes said. "I invite you and you never come."

By this time, everyone including Artie and Mr. Schue had left the auditorium. Santana could speak louder. "Yeah, because you always say 'come hang out with me and Sam.' or 'come hang out with me and Ada.' Sorry, but I don't want to be a third wheel to your bestfriend/boyfriend and I don't want to come between you and the sister that you haven't been able to have a friendship with in years."

"Then don't complain. We'll do something next weekend."

"Yeah, right. You know something? I'm supportive of your relationship with Sam, but you've never been that person to abandon their friends when they get a new boo. This better not be the first time."

Mercedes frowned. "Hostile much? Sam and I just started dating. I think your fragile ego can wait to hang out with me."

Santana bent down to get her bags. "I'm not kidding, Merce. I'm all for Samcedes, but not if it causes you to forget that other people exist." She looked at Mercedes one last time before walking out.

Mercedes rolled her eyes and walked out to the hallway where Sam was waiting for her. "Do you think we're spending too much time together?"

Sam gave her a quick peck and took her things. "What? What do you even mean by that?"

"My thoughts exactly. Santana says that I've forgotten about everyone else since I've started dating. I told her that she was crazy."

"I mean, we did _just_ start dating. I don't know how we could be spending too much time together yet. I might've been able to understand if we had been together for like 5 months and we completely isolated ourselves from the rest of the world, but we haven't."

"Exactly." They got to Sam's truck, and he opened the door for her. She thanked him and continued when he got in on the driver's side. "I mean, maybe she's only saying this because she thought it would be like it's always been. Like, I would hang out with the both of you and then hang out with my boyfriend. But now, I've substituted you for my boyfriend, which means your time is both best friend time _and_ boyfriend time. Then, one of your time slots gets cut short because I end up spending time with my sister."

"What?" Sam asked, puzzled.

"Okay. Listen to me. About half of my afterschool time involves hanging out with my best friends, and hanging out with my boyfriend, after which I do whatever I want. The half of my afterschool time is then split in half to give equal time to my boy and best friends. Now that you're my boyfriend and Ada's back, you get boyfriend _and_ best friend time, but I don't feel like you need all that time, so best friend time or boyfriend time gets cut short so that I can spend time with my sister, whom I feel needs and deserves the time."

"Are you finished? Because you're making my head hurt."

Mercedes chuckled. "Yeah, I'm done. Look, I kind of understand where Santana's coming from, but I need to spend time with my sister. If she's not able to work around that, then she doesn't get to be angry over it."

"Alright. Anyways, I actually can't hang out today. I'm going to visit my dad in rehab."

Mercedes frowned. "And you didn't tell me this because…"

"Because." Sam shrugged. "You've been worried about your sister and stuff." He saw the look she gave him. "Merce, I wouldn't have let you come anyways."

"Let me?"

"Yeah. I don't even want to go, but my dad wrote my mom a letter that said that he wanted to see me. Talk to me. Something like that. Long story short, I'm the only one that's going. Not my siblings or my mom or anyone. Just me."

"Oh." Mercedes looked out the window, then back at him. "Are you ready? Like, do you want to do it?"

"Well, he did kind of wrecked my truck and spend a shit ton of money that should've been used to support his family on alcohol, so I want to talk to him about that. I'm not exactly ready, but if he wants me there and he wants to talk, then I need to go because he's my father. Enough about me. Is your sister really ok? I know that you told me she was yesterday, but I just want to make sure."

"Yeah, she's good." Mercedes looked back out the window. "She's got an OB appointment tomorrow. She wants me there."

"Wow. Really?"

"Yeah." Mercedes smiled and nodded. "We're really getting to have a true sisterly relationship now. I'm actually kind of loving it."

"I have a question."

"Shoot."

"What about Nate?"

"I already told you what about him. Ada doesn't want him to be a father."

"Yeah, but does she not want him to be a part of the pregnancy or does she not want him to be a part of Baby's life at all?"

Mercedes shrugged. "Honestly, I have no idea. I've been trying to tell her that she should talk to him. She can't do this alone. She's going to want someone to be there. It's a difficult situation, I guess."

"A difficult situation? They've been dating for three and a half years. The man has a right to be a part of the pregnancy. When you think about it, it's his pregnancy, too. He should be there. Especially since he wants to be."

"Wait a minute." Mercedes objected. "If it was me, I would appreciate it if whoever the father was allowed me to make my own decisions."

"So, you wouldn't allow me to have a say in anything?"

"You might have a small say, but ultimately, it's my baby, it's my body, and I don't need a man in order to make a decision."

"I'm not saying that you need a man in order to make a decision, but you should have someone, and it's my baby just as much as it is yours, so I should also have a say in any decisions that are made concerning the baby."

Mercedes scoffed. "What is this, the 50s? If I found out that I was pregnant today and I wanted to make a decision that you opposed of, obviously, I would listen to what you have to say, but if I feel like my decision is better, I'm going to go with my decision whether you like it or not."

Sam could tell that Mercedes was getting irritated, so he decided to let it go. "I guess you're right. When it comes down to it, it's your body. You should have the last say."

"I know I should." Mercedes crossed her arms. She mumbled something. Sam pulled into Mercedes' driveway. The two got out of the car and walked to the front door. Mercedes went into the house and she noticed that Sam was still on the porch. "Are you not coming in?"

Sam stuffed his hands in his pockets. "No. I need to go ahead and get going."

Mercedes looked down at the ground. "I know you ended the argument or whatever for me. You didn't have to do that. I appreciate it."

"Well, no reason for us to get into an argument over your sister's choices."

"Alright." Mercedes looked behind her to see if she saw Ada. She didn't. "Now are you gonna come in?"

Sam looked at his watch. "I've got to go pick up Stevie and Stacy before I head to the rehab center." He saw the look on her face. "I 'm not mad, Merce." He assured her. "You're not pregnant, and you won't be getting pregnant anytime soon. It doesn't matter." He put his hands around her waist and gave her a kiss. "I love you."

Mercedes smiled and felt her cheeks get hot. She looked at his chest then up at him. "I love you, too. Say hey to your dad for me, alright?" She backed out of his embrace, laying her hands on his chest. "I'll see you later." Her hands moved from his chest to his hands as she slowly backed into the house and waved one last time before shutting the door. She leaned back against the door, closed her eyes, and smiled while biting her lip.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her sister's voice. "When did that happen?"

Mercedes nearly jumped out of her skin. "When did what happen?"

"Oh, no. Don't go acting all naive now. I heard you guys." Ada walked back into the kitchen.

Mercedes rolled her eyes as she followed her sister. "So, you were listening in on our conversation."

"False. I was _not_ listening in on your conversation. I was right here," Ada motioned to the space around her. "In the kitchen, minding my own business, and I thought that I would make myself one of my famous ham and turkey sandwiches. Would you like one?" She looked back at her sister. Mercedes shook her head and Ada turned back around. "You never answered my question." She turned back around and cut her sandwich into two triangles.

"And what question was that?"

"When did that happen?" Ada repeated as brought over a plate to the island.

"Are you serious?" Mercedes watched as her sister got a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

"Absolutely serious. It was what I said, wasn't it? About not being afraid to tell someone you love them?"" She grinned knowingly.

"Oh, my God." Mercedes chuckled embarrassedly and blushed a little.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of." Ada's grin widened. "I give pretty great advice." After some quick deliberation, she decided not to spare her sister anymore embarrassment, "Was that the 'unfinished business' you spoke of last night? Because you never told me about that either."

Mercedes fought a smile, "Why does it matter?"

"Well," Ada took a bite out of one of her sandwich triangles. "You're my sister. And I'm interested in your life. When did you guys start dating? Like, 2 months ago? You guys have been dating for two months?"

"Yes, we have. And we just started saying that last night. I didn't want to say it yet because we've not been together that long, but I couldn't help it. Just felt natural."

"So, it was what I said, wasn't it?" Ada's smile returned even wider.

Mercedes finally gave in, "Maybe."

"Haha, yes!" Ada laughed victoriously.

"Okay, don't get to excited. You didn't bring about an immaculate conception or anything." Mercedes rolled her eyes at her sister's antics. "It's just a lot, you know? The whole 'I love you,'" She tilted her head to one side, "'I don't love you,'" To the other side, "I love you, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.'" Back to the other side again. "It's just a lot of back and forth. It was getting tiring."

"So you're good with it now, I'm assuming? Letting him know?"

"Of course I'm good with it. He's not forcing me to tell him that I love him. Our relationship isn't that different from the way it was before we started dating. I loved him then, just in a different way. Now, I've come to accept that I can love him more ways than one."

"God. Your beautiful love statements are sickening." She paused for a moment and got serious to check in, "You don't really think things are going to be _that _easy for you guys, though. Right?"

Mercedes nodded, "Well, yeah. I know every couple has their ups and downs, but we're good for right now. I'm just gonna enjoy it while it lasts."

"Okay. As long as you're sure." Ada walked over to the living room with her plate and sat down.

Mercedes sat beside her. "So, how are you and Baby?"

"Baby and I are good. They moved today." Ada smiled sweetly.

"Baby moved? Really?" Mercedes got excited.

"Yeah, but no one can tell but me. I just feel it inside, you know? Not like kicks, though. It's complicated." Ada chuckled.

"That's great. Are you gonna start really showing soon?"

"Yeah. I think so. My OB explained that it can take some time to start noticeably showing because of different factors. But I've got a feeling that I'll be showing _pretty_ soon." Ada's smile went away. "Which means we'll have to tell everyone else pretty soon."

"It'll work itself out. Mom and Dad might be upset at first, but they'll come to their senses eventually. And, they'll help you figure out what to do about everything." As Mercedes talked to her sister, she had the feeling that she wasn't completely listening. "Is something wrong?" Mercedes asked.

"Yeah. I guess. I don't know." Ada shrugged.

"You don't know? What do you mean you don't know?"

"No. It's fine. I just miss Nate a little bit." Ada shrugged again.

"Well, you know what I told you to do."

"You're right, I do know." Ada rolled her eyes. "But that doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do."

"Letting a man see his long-term pregnant girlfriend isn't the right thing?" Mercedes took Ada's other triangle and bit into it.

"What the fuck?" Ada frowned. "_I asked you if you wanted one_."

"Didn't want a whole one," Mercedes shrugged and looked at her sister. "Don't try to change the subject."

"Change what subject?"

"The subject of you pushing Nate away when he did nothing wrong."

"I'm not pushing him away! I just don't want him to know anything right now."

"So, I'm guessing you just broke up with him for no reason and decided to up and leave?"

"I broke up with him because I'm pregnant, and he knows that."

"Look, Ade. You've got a lot of stuff going on right now. I get that. But he shouldn't have to suffer because of it. All Nate wants is-"

"Nate, Nate, Nate." Ada interrupted her sister. "I know what Nate wants, Mercedes. And I already told him that it's not good for us."

"But if you miss him, maybe you should take back what you said."

"No."

"Why did you even break things off?"

"I already told you."

"Tell me again."

Ada got up and took her plate into the kitchen with Mercedes following her. She threw her stuff away.

"Why did you do that?" Mercedes asked angrily. She didn't like being walked out on.

Ada braced herself on the sink, her back to Mercedes. "I love him, Mercedes. I have known that man for 7 years and dated him for almost 4. He is my entire world." She turned around to face her sister. "And, on top of that, I want to marry him. But this situation is just so fucked up."

"It doesn't have to be." Mercedes reasoned.

"It does. No offense to you or anything, but I just can't do this with him right now. If you were me, you'd get it."

"Okay, well, just tell me what happened." Mercedes took Ada's hand and walked her back over to the living room. They sat down. "If you want, you can pretend that I am your diary and that your mouth is the pen of a ready writer. And that your words are… words. The words that you would write in said diary."

Ada put her head down and closed her eyes. "Mercedes, I don't want to talk about it."

"Please? Maybe if you tell me, I can understand better. By all means, if you don't want to explain, you don't have to. I just want to understand."

"Fine." Ada exhaled and looked her sister in the eye. "Just let me talk though? You like to interrupt."

"Yeah, Promise."

"Okay."

* * *

_Approx. 2 months ago_

"So, when are we going back to see your family again?" Nathan asked. "You know I love them, right? Well, I love your sisters. Your brothers are a little too strong-armish for me."

Ada stared at Nathan for a minute. "We're not going back to see my family again."

"Why not? Did something happen?"

"No. Nothing happened with my family. They're fine. It's not that we're not going back. It's that you're not going… back… to see my family."

Nathan frowned. "Me? I know your dad and your brothers kind of hate me, but everyone else loves me. Or, at least, I thought they did. Don't they?"

"No, babe. That's not it at all. All of my family adores you, you know that. And I wanna say that I appreciate how much you want them to love you, but there's something that I need to tell you. I wanted to hold off on it for a little bit, but I won't be able to for much longer." Ada felt tears slowly come to her eyes.

Nathan noticed her expression and reached for her hands. "Okay. Go ahead."

"Alright, well, since I-"

"Wait. You're not cheating on me, right? Because I really can't hear you say that to me."

"No, it's nothing like that. I'm not cheating on you , I'm not even thinking of cheating on you." Ada took a deep breath before continuing. "You know how I've been talking about how run down I am and we thought it was just like my cycle and the beginning of the year and all that stuff?"

"Yeah. Is it not that? Are you sick or something? Have you been taking your meds? Of course you've been taking your meds. We live together. I pretty much watch you take them everyday."

Ada suddenly felt the dreaded lump in her throat. "Please, just let me finish, okay?" Ada smiled for a second despite the lump. "I'm not sick. I'm fine. Barring."

"Barring what?"

Ada paused and took a deep breath. She was trying to keep it together, but if she couldn't say what she was trying to say soon, she'd become a puddle of tears. "Just listen and let me finish. I'm going to tell you this, but I want you to wait until I'm done speaking to say anything else. Anyways, about a week ago, I found out I was late. And I mean _late_, late." Another deep breath. "So, I decided to go to the doctor and she ran some tests." The tears that had been building up finally fell free. Ada removed her hands from Nathan's and buried her face in them.

Nathan sat, trying to figure out what she was telling him. "Doctor's, tests, late." He frowned as he whispered. "Late, late. Late?" His breath hitched suddenly. "You're pregnant?"

Ada sighed as she nodded tearfully. "I love you so much and I never meant for this to happen and I'm sorry, but yeah." She felt his arms around her.

"There's nothing to be sorry about, Ada." Nathan said. "Ada, I want you to listen to me." He moved his hands to her shoulders and pushed her outwards so that she was facing him. "And I want you to listen good." She was still crying a little, so he wiped away her tears before continuing. "I'm not going anywhere. You understand me? This is my baby, and you can bet your ass I'm going to be here for the both of you. No matter what you decide to do. If you decide you want to keep it, then I'll clear out my work room for a nursery. Should you decide to put it up or adoption, just say the word, and hell, I'll call an agency right now. Whatever it is that you need, Ada. I'm going to be here, and I'm going to support you. No matter what. Okay? You're not alone in this."

"You can't do that, Nate." Ada cried. "What are you gonna do about your career? You're graduating in December. You've got so much stuff you want to do. You can't put something like this on hold for-"

"For something like this, babe," Nathan stopped her. "I can. Broadway will always be there. Plus, there's always smaller jobs with smaller commitments. It can wait. This can't."

"But you heard what Professor Doherty said last week." Ada shook her head. "It can wait, but you can't. You have to get yourself out there quick, or else you may never see a Broadway stage. You can't let me take that away from you."

"It's not you, Ada. It's a baby. _Our_ baby. Would it be anything else, maybe I could figure out a way to make it work. But we've got something that needs taking care of. Some_one_, and I'm going to fulfill my deed to you two first. All the success and stuff will still be there a year or so from now."

"A year or so?" Ada stood up from the couch. "What about eighteen years, Nate? What then?" After Nathan said nothing, she continued. "You think I want to slow down my own career for this? I'm getting offers, too. Not as many as you, but I've had some professors set up interviews and auditions for me that could end up being really good things. We both have something, Nathan. We both have dreams and we both have amazing talent. But, if either of us waits too long, it could be too late!"

"Ada, we've been together for almost four years. Anything you go through, I go through." Nathan stood up in front of her and put his face close to hers. "And I will be _damned_ if I just go after what I want while leaving you and not thinking about my obligations to you and our child. I already told you that I'm here. I meant that. I'm not going anywhere. Please, don't fight me on this."

"Is that a threat?"

"You know it's not-"

"What you gonna do? Get your _step daddy _to call some big shot lawyers for you? _Make me_ let you be a part of this pregnancy? Huh? You want to get your parents to fight yet another battle in your place?"

"Ada, that-"

"No, Nathan." Ada stepped away from him. "I'm relieving you of your fucking _obligations _to this baby. Whatever that means. You don't have to worry about it now, right?" Ada almost sounded hopeful. "You can leave it alone and do what you have to do. This isn't your shit to deal with anymore."

Nathan stood there, frowning. "Really?" He said hurtfully. "You would actually say something like that to me? After all that we've been through together?" He paused. "It's one thing to not understand where I'm coming from. But to not want me to be there? Fuck that. To not _let _me be there? After all that that I went through with my father? You would actually do this to me?"

Ada wanted to kick herself in the head as she remembered all the things that he went through growing up and not having a father who was there for him. "No, Nate. I didn't think about that I'm so sorry-"

"No, it's okay." Nathan said calmly, even though it obviously wasn't. He laughed humorlessly and shook his head. "And to think," He walked over to the kitchen and pulled something out of one of the drawers and came back. He held up a small black velvet ring box. "I got this three months ago. Been working up the nerve." Ada could see the tears come to his eyes as he narrowed them. "I wanted this." He motioned to the space between them. "I wanted this no matter what." A tear fell from both his eyes. "Fuck it." He whispered. "You want to leave, Ada? You want to not let me be a part of this baby's life? Fine. Do whatever you want. I can't fight you." He threw the box on the couch and wiped his tears. "I'm going to bed." He sniffled as he walked down the hallway to the bathroom.

"Nate." Ada called out weakly. "Nathan, wait." She followed him quickly, calling out to him. "Nathan, baby, please. I'm sorry. Please, just come back." She would've followed him right into the bedroom had he not shut the door as soon as she got to it. Ada tried to open the door, but it was locked, so she knocked lightly. "Babe, please let me in. I wasn't thinking about you and your dad, okay? You know I wouldn't have said anything like that normally I-. I'm just really scared and I don't know what I'm going to do. You can still ask me. Please? I'll say yes. I will." Tears sprang to her eyes. "I want this, too. I just need you to…" She trailed off. She knew he wasn't going to open that door for her. She walked back to the couch where the ring was and sat down and opened it to see a 2 carat Tiffany & Co. Round Brilliant Novo ring with a diamond set band. She quickly kicked the coffee table, knocking over a glass that shattered once it hit the ground. "Fuck." She nearly shouted.

She cried. Looked at the ring. Thought about leaving. Cried some more. She spent the next few hours just looking at the ring in the box. She thought about calling Mercedes. Even though Ada's sister thought that she hated her, she didn't. She loved her to death. Plus, she was the best advisor she had ever known.

Ada looked down and put a hand on her stomach before slowly taking the ring out of the box and slipping it onto her finger. She then got up and walked to the bedroom door. She stopped in front of it and took a deep breath. She took a couple of bobby pins out of her hair and began to pick the lock before noticing that the door had been unlocked. She opened the door to see Nathan, his back to her, sitting on the his of the bed with his face buried in his hands. She sat on her side of the bed. "Don't get up." She stammered quickly. "Please."

He stayed there, she felt relieved for a second. "I would _never_ deliberately keep you from your child. Especially in consideration of what you went through. You know that. And I know it sounds stupid but I really do just want what's best for you." She saw him shake his head and she quickly reached over and touched his shoulder. "But it's more than that. I've seen people with huge dreams. Huge. But they let something like a baby or a different opportunity get in the way of it. And when they came back, thinking that they were ready to go back to their dream, they realized that they'd lost that spark. That one thing that motivated them for all that time. They didn't have it anymore."

He never moved or said anything. He just sat there.

"You have a dream. And you are the only person I've ever known who's been so capable. Who's truly had more than the full potential to become what they desired." She started to cry. "I couldn't be the one to mess that up for you. And you were right when you said that the offers and similars will still be there. But what if you're not? What if you go back there, to those broadway directors and producers and have to decline all those offers because _you're_ not there? I can't let you lose this spark, Nate. I don't know how we're going to be able to work this out, but I'm with you. I'm for you. Maybe some things will have to change. Maybe I'll have to give up on my dream, maybe you, yours. Maybe both of us. But I'm with you, Nathan. I'm with you, and I want this." She moved closer to him and used her left hand to grab his that was in his lap. "No matter what."

He slowly took her hands and held it back. He looked back at her. "No matter what?"

Ada almost broke down again. His eyes were red and puffy, his nose was alike in the sense that it, too, was red. His voice cracked when he spoke, and there were fresh and dried tear tracks on his face. Along with more fresh tears in his eyes. Ada nodded tearfully. "No matter what."

* * *

"Wait, so he was going to propose, and you accepted. You were engaged! Why are you here?" Mercedes shouted.

"Will you just let me finish?" Ada closed her eyes and took a deep breath. SHe had already been crying for a few minutes.

* * *

Nathan turned around and hugged his fiancee tight. Ada hugged him just as tightly. Neither of them wanted to let go. They fought a lot. That was what couples do. But this time, it was different. They had almost quit on one another before, but this was _different_. There was so much more to fight for now. So much more than just their love for one another. There was a child. A living, soon to be breathing thing. A baby.

"I love you so much." Ada said.

"I love both of you." Nathan hugged Ada even tighter.

_Both of you._ Ada replayed Nate's voice in her head. Those words definitely resonated with her. The magnitude of the entire situation finally hit her. "God, Nate." She sighed as tears clouded her vision. "I'm so utterly, completely, absolutely sorry."

"Shh." Nathan rubbed her hair. "Don't even worry about it." He finally let her go. He leaned back slightly to look at her. He looked down at her hand. "Great fit." He smiled.

Ada smiled hard, wiping away the tears that fell and nodded. "Perfect." She agreed.

"Yeah, perfect. _Perfect._" Nathan hoped she could tell that he was talking about more than the ring at this point. He kissed her happily and laid her down on her back, lifting up her shirt. "I can't believe it." He laughed. "Jesus Christ. There's a baby in here?" He looked up at her as he pointed at her stomach.

"Yeah." Ada nodded, giddy. Why was she so excited? She'd already known she was pregnant for a week. She gasped suddenly. "I almost forgot." She reached toward the nightstand with Nathan still playing with her stomach. She pulled something out of the drawer. "I had to leave after my appointment, but this came in the mail." She handed the object to him.

Nathan took the sheet and looked at it. It was a picture of an ultrasound. He glanced at Ada, at the picture, then back at Ada. "Is this?"

Ada bit her lip and nodded. "7 weeks, yeah."

"7 weeks?"

"7 weeks." Ada smiled. "He or she is the size of a blueberry, but they're there."

"A Blueberry." Nathan whispered in awe. He put his head down on Ada's stomach and kissed it. He started sobbing for the first time that day.

"Nathan," Ada sat up, alarmed.

Nathan threw his arms around Ada's torso and continued to sob. He lifted his head and ran his hand over her stomach as he put the picture beside it. "A blueberry?" He smiled, still sobbing. "A blueberry." He repeated. "A _blueberry_." He laughed loudly and nearly jumped on top of her, kissing her repeatedly all over her face. "Do you realize how amazing this is?" He asked. "We're having a baby."

Ada held up her hand, showing him the ring. "And we're getting married." She said quietly.

"And we're getting married!" Nathan shouted. He pulled her off of the bed and started to dance with her and sing, "Goin' to the chapel and we're gonna get married, goin' to the chapel and we're gonna get married," He paused and nodded to Ada.

Ada chuckled and sang along. "Gee, I really love you and we're gonna get married,"

They sang together in harmony. "Goin' to the chapel of love."

They continued to sing and dance until Ada said she needed some sleep. Even once they got into bed, Nathan put his arm around her and she laid her hand on his chest and sang to her softly. She eventually fell asleep, but he kept singing.

* * *

Ada stopped talking and reached for her shoes beside her. Mercedes frowned. "What are you doing?" She asked.

Ada shrugged. "Um, hello," Ada pointed at the clock on the wall. "I have an appointment to get to. Just come on, I'll fill you in on the rest on the way there."

"Fine." Mercedes got her keys and started to walk out of the door before Ada stopped asked her what she was doing.

"What? I'm driving."

"No, you're not. It's my appointment. Why would you drive?"

"You're pregnant. And you were just crying like 30 seconds ago."

"I'm not even showing yet." Ada snapped.

"So?"

"So, you get in my car and _I_ drive."

"Well," Mercedes said to herself. "I may not be able to tell you're pregnant by looking at you, but I can definitely tell with your pubescent mood swings."

"I'm sorry?" Ada stopped in her tracks right before she reached the door. She gave Mercedes a look.

Mercedes felt chills down her spine. That was _her _look. Had she gotten it from her sister? "Nothing." She muttered, hoping the conversation would be over soon.

"Great." Ada gave her sister a sweet smile. "Now, let's go."

Once they got in the car, Mercedes spoke up. "So, you gonna finish now?"

Ada clicked her tongue. "Oh, yeah. Where was I?"

* * *

OKAY! So, yeah, it's lengthy for a two-parter. So, now to update you guys on why I've been gone! Aside from regular life things and the holidays (hope yours were great, btw), I actually lost many chapters that I had written for this story (over 10) because I broke my laptop around 1.5 years ago and the majority of the chapters were on the actual computer with just bits and pieces online where I usually keep all my stories. So I've taken the time I've been gone to rewrite every single one of them *insert sweating emoji*. I tried to stick as close to the original as I could, which is why it took so long. But I've got them written so we're going to hope that everything is logical. There may be some things that I hinted at in previous chapters that aren't included now simply because I forgot them, but we're going to hope that everything works out! That being said, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please review and let me know what you guys think! Next chapter, we'll get the rest of Ada's story. Until next time!


	12. Story of My Life Pt II

Alrighty! As promised, here's chapter 11! Apologies for any errors

* * *

Ada opened her eyes and looked at the alarm clock. It read 3:46. Nathan would be up in about an hour to do some working out or warming up or something. But for now, Ada was up for a different reason: her stomach was killing her. She slowly wormed herself out of her fiancee's hold to grip her stomach. _Fiancee._ She stretched out her arm and examined the ring. She started to smile before that stomach ache turned into intense nausea. She shot up from the bed and made a beeline for the bathroom. She knelt down in front of the toilet. She tried to think of disgusting thoughts. Nothing. She did this for about 30 minutes, and still nothing. She decided to lay down and be soothed by the cool of the bathroom floor, hoping the nausea would soon pass.

It didn't pass that much, but she did fall asleep. Nathan woke her up. "Ada? Are you okay?"

Ada nodded. "Morning sickness. I'm fine." She really wasn't. After waking up, the nausea came back in full force.

"Alright, I guess. How did I miss you getting out of bed?" He asked.

"You're not exactly a light sleeper." Ada sat up against the shower wall. "I wouldn't be surprised if you-" She almost gagged. She leaned over and exhaled into the toilet. "Slept through your own funeral." She sighed as she finished her sentence.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Nathan moved to sit beside her. "Don't fight it." He rubbed circles on her back.

Ada shook her head. "You know I hate throwing up." She winced as she took a deep breath, trying to fight off her morning sickness. "Nothing's even come up all morning. I'm just sitting here feeling miserable."

"I'm assuming things get better throughout the course of the day?" Nathan quickly sat up behind her.

Ada shook her head. "Not really. The doctor gave me something when I went there. Before then, I usually took some anti-nausea medicine or something."

Nathan rubbed small circles of her back. "Ever thought of taking them in the morning?"

Ada coughed. "No. I'm usually too sick. Can't keep anything down. But I'll be fine for rehearsals. Just go ahead and get ready."

"I'm not leaving you. Not now." Nathan protested.

"Seriously, Nate?" Ada looked over her shoulder from the toilet. "Just go. I'll be alright. You have auditions today, too."

"It's nothing big. You know that." Nate stood his ground. "It's just community theatre. I don't need too many projects now anyways. I have the play. I have you and the baby-"

"Nathan, I swear to god."

Nathan sighed. "Fine. Just… Just try taking the anti-nausea pills. Can you do that before I leave?"

"They're in the cabinet." Ada pointed upwards.

Nathan stood up and reached over her to get the pills. He then walked out of the bathroom for a minute and came back with three bottles in his hand. "Water, and Gatorade and Pedialyte for electrolytes. Which one?"

Ada rolled her eyes and leaned up against the shower wall again. She took the Gatorade out of his hand, then the medicine. She downed the pills and looked at him expectantly, ignoring the quite literal gut feeling that she shouldn't have done so. "Will you go get ready now?"

"Fine. But if I feel like for a second that I should come back, I'm coming back." Nathan went to go put the other drinks back. He would go get his workout in, and go straight into warm ups before going straight into auditions. He decided to go and check on Ada again. When he got to the entrance of the bathroom, he saw her pulling her hair to the side with her right hand. "Shit." He rushed to where she was on the floor, taking her hair out of her hand for her.

"Nathan…" She croaked. "Go."

"No." Nathan said firmly.

When Ada got herself back under control, she sighed. "You said that if I took the pills-"

"I also said that if I felt like I didn't need to be gone I would come back." He spat out. "And as we can see, those pills obviously aren't going to do you any good. I'm calling Doherty and I'm telling him that the auditions will have to wait."

"No, Nathan. He helped you get these auditions. You're not just going to blow them off like that." Ada said.

"I'll tell him that you're sick and need taking care of. He'll understand." He went to the kitchen to call the professor.

The person on the other end of the phone spoke. "Hello."

"Professor Doherty, Nat-"

"Nathan Scatliffe. How are you?"

Nathan chuckled. "Glad to see you're figuring out this caller id thing, sir."

"Well, people were starting to think I was stupid when I asked them who they were, so I had to do something about that."

"Hey, you said it, not me." Nathan laughed. "Listen, Professor Doherty, I won't be able to make those auditions today."

"You do realize that I set these up for you, correct?"

"Exactly, Sir. That is completely right and correct and true." Nathan stammered. "But Ada's really sick right now, and-"

"What's the problem? Has she been drinking her throat coat?"

"Yes, sir, she has. It's not technically anything that has to do with… she's just.. it's that she's sick and-"

"I've puked _once_." Ada yelled.

Nathan ignored her. "And I don't feel good about leaving her like this."

"Let me talk to her." Doherty deadpanned.

"Professor Doherty, I really don't-"

"Nathan, put your girlfriend on the phone. Now." Doherty demanded sternly.

"Yes, sir." Nathan quickly walked to the bathroom, where Ada was sitting on the bathtub with her elbows propped up her knees and her hands on her forehead. "Doherty's on the phone for you."

Ada breathed deeply, willing her stomachache to go away. "Seriously, Nathan? Did you tell him that now is not a good time?"

"I did, but he demanded that I put you on the phone. Just talk to him." He sat down beside her and shoved the phone to her slightly while putting his other arm around her. He kissed the side of her forehead.

Ada took the phone in her hand and put it on speaker. "Hello, Professor." She said, slightly weak. She took Nathan's hand.

"Jones, how's it going."

Ada cleared her throat. "Not that good right now, as I'm assuming Nathan told you."

"Well, you know what they say about those who assume," Doherty joked before clearing his throat awkwardly. "But yes, he told me. You're ok with him missing his auditions today?"

Ada looked over at Nathan. "I told him to leave me here and to do what he needed to do. He won't listen."

"So, you think that you'll be fine."

Ada winced. She felt her stomach churning. "I do, sir, I know so. But I need to go for right now." She gulped. "Now's not a good time."

"Well, will you be fine enough to be at rehearsals later?"

Ada now spoke weakly again. "I'll try, Professor, but I really need to go right now." Ada let go of Nathan's hand, rubbed her stomach, and snuck out of Nathan's arm to resume her previous position.

"Well, answer me this, then-"

Nathan spoke up as he took the phone from his fiancee. "Uh, Professor, Ada really doesn't feel well. If you'd like, we can call back later when she feels better."

He sighed. "I was looking for some sign that you were actually sick, that way, I knew you two weren't going to be jumping one another's bones all day. But I can tell just by the sound of her voice that she's not feeling her best." He paused. "Look, Scatliffe, you can miss auditions, but I expect to see one or both of you at rehearsals. If I don't see you, she better be in the hospital or seriously sick on the next phone call. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. Can I go now?"

"Yes, son. Go take care of her."

"Thank you." Nathan hung up the phone and put it to the side. He rubbed small circles on Ada's back. "Remember what I said. Just let it happen."

"I don't think I have a choice."

* * *

"Ok, you can skip to the part I actually wanted to know about. I don't want to hear about your morning sickness. Unfortunately, I've dealt with enough of it first hand." Mercedes said.

Ada rolled her eyes. "You _said_ to pretend you were my diary. This is all stuff I would write in my diary."

"I _said_ to tell me how everything went down."

"Anyways,"

* * *

"You can go now, babe. I'm fine." Ada laid her head on Nathan's shoulder. Her morning sickness had mostly passed. She was fine enough to leave the bathroom and lay down on the bed, but she was a little too weak for rehearsals. They were both going to go, but she was probably going to sit out today.

Nate looked at Ada with a slightly stern look. "You're out of your mind." He squeezed her shoulder. "We have some stuff to talk about." He said softly.

"Please, Nathan." Ada tried to get from out of Nathan's hold, but he wrapped his other arm around her quickly and pinned her down on the bed. Ada laughed slightly. "Stop before I throw up on you." She smiled when he leaned in and kissed her. "Can't we do this later? You're done holding my hair back for the day." She chuckled. "We're having a baby. _We're getting married._ We should be celebrating."

"Ada, we need to talk about what we're gonna be doing from this point on. We celebrated last night. This is today. _We need to talk._" Nathan spoke softly, yet sternly. He released her, but didn't let her go anywhere.

Ada rolled her eyes. "Talk about what, Nathan?"

"I mean, you can't really keep doing this with a baby on the way. Have you thought about what you're going to do? What this means for our careers?"

"And what the hell does that mean? You carrying a life now, too?" Ada retorted. "You're not the pregnant one, Nate. I am. This doesn't mean _anything_ for your career."

Nathan closed his eyes and huffed. He knew where this was headed. "I know that, Ade. That's not what I meant-"

"Oh, well then, _please_ tell me what it is that you mean because what you just said makes absolutely no sense. I mean it's actually confusing me."

"What I mean is that you might be the pregnant one, but when this baby gets here and possibly before, I'm going to have daddy duties to take care of."

"Oh, and because you may be on a break for a week or so, that has to mean something for your career, right? So my career, which, in a few months, I will be taking a break from _indefinitely_ is just as much at risk as yours. That's what you're thinking?"

"Ada," Nathan grunted. "If this was something you've been scared of, why are you doing this?"

"Doing what, exactly?"

"_Having a baby._" He said. "Why are you doing this if you're _that _worried about your career?"

"Well, what was I supposed to do, Nate?"

"I don't know. Adoption or something. Even if abortion is something you're doing, you gotta do what you gotta do, I understand."

Ada narrowed her eyes at him. "You know I can't abort this baby. You _know_ that."

Nathan sighed as he sat up on the bed facing her. "I do."

"I made a promise to my brother. You know _that_, too."

"I do. A promise doesn't always take into consideration the realities of life, but I do."

"Then why would you even mention something like that?"

"I'm saying that that is something you _could've_ done. Believe me, I'm extremely glad that you didn't." He pulled her up to sit on the bed so that she was facing him and held her hands in between them. "All I'm saying is this:" He looked at her in her eyes, even though she refused to look at him. "This is _our_ baby. Yeah, you might be the one carrying it, but I'm going to help you take care of him or her. We're in this together, just like I told you. My career won't take as big of a hit as yours. I know that. But I'm devoting myself to my family, whatever it comes first. Before, this was just you." He smiled when she finally looked at him. "Now, it's you and Baby." He looked at her, trying to decipher the look she gave him.

"I don't want you to worry about this, Nate." Ada said quietly. "Look, I'm not scared that you're going to resent me or this baby or anything," She spoke louder. "But I don't want you to think that this should impede your career in any way. I don't want you to have to figure any of this out. Just focus on what you're doing. I'm going to figure this out by myself."

Nathan frowned. "So, what? You're leaving me or something?" He chuckled. "That's crazy." He chuckled again. He stopped chuckling when he noticed Ada wasn't chuckling with him. "You can't be serious."

Ada avoided his gaze. "I applied for a Leave of Absence. It was approved-"

"No-"

"I'm going back to Ohio on Monday-"

"No. You're not. You're not going anywhere. You need to be here. You can't miss out on your senior year. Do you even know how far behind you'll be when you come back?" Nathan got up off of the bed and stood across from it.

"I won't be far behind. I've taken a couple of extra classes on the side. I didn't do it for any specific reason, but I guess it's coming in handy now. Starting next semester, I'll be taking some online classes for any other credits I need. I'll come back after the baby's born." She stopped when she saw his face. "Please don't give me that look." She pleaded.

"What look?"

"The sad crestfallen child look that you do."

"You mean the look that appears on my face when I'm sad and crestfallen? I'm sorry that I can't coddle your selfish feelings long enough to give you a happy expression right now, Ada." Nate spat angrily.

Ada's brows furrowed a little. "That was mean." She said, shocked.

"I think I have the right to be mean when you just told me that you're taking my baby away from me-"

"I'm _not_ taking your baby away from you."

"Then what exactly are you doing?" He quizzed.

"I'm taking time off so that I can figure out how I'm going to _raise a child_ and have a career. Which won't even be the career that I've been dreaming of my entire life, by the way. I've never been a parent before, Nathan. I'm no one's mother."

"And I have been? You think I've got kids somewhere or something? I'm just as new to this as you are."

"Exactly." Ada stood up now. "So what does that mean when I have this baby and we both have things to do that we haven't been able to work on or lines we haven't learned because we have to feed and change a newborn every 2 hours? Or how about when you go to grad school and have this huge exam to study for and you can never get any study time in because he or she won't sleep unless they're held?" She paused. "What if you find yourself a spot in some production company and I have some sort of audition? You can't leave your job, and I'm still trying to get one. Then what?"

"Then we figure it out, Ada. We don't-"

"There's nothing to figure out, Nathan!" Ada shouted. "Nothing." She walked over to him and placed her hand on his chest. She sighed when he back away from her. "I'm sorry, babe." She whispered. "But this is just how it has to be for right now. It might not always be like this. It _most likely _won't be like this once the baby gets here." She reasoned. "Maybe your parents won't mind looking after him or her while we're at school or working or doing whatever we're doing. Maybe my brother can help us out. Maybe we'll be able to work something out with whomever we're working with. While I'm gone, I'll try to make trips back while I can still fly. We can spend weekends together or something. But for right now, going home truly is the best option for me. I need you to understand that."

Nathan looked at her for a few minutes, and they stood there like that. He shook his head. "I need a walk." He walked around her and into the living room.

Ada followed him. "Nate-"

"I need a walk or some fresh air or something. I can't do this with you right now." He started getting his things together. His phone, a jacket, his wallet.

"Please, just try to understand."

"I don't understand Ada! And I can't. You accept my half proposal thing. We're engaged. You tell me that we're gonna be alright. Then you sleep for a few hours, and suddenly it's a completely different thing and you tell me you're leaving and I'll hardly ever be able to see you or this baby for a long time. We're probably not even _engaged_."

"We still are engaged!" Ada reached for him, but he pulled back again."Nate, just because I'm leaving, it doesn't mean we can't still be engaged. Lots of people have long distance engagements."

"Honestly, Ada, I…" Nathan sighed. "I don't even know what to say. You let me go to bed last night thinking that everything was going to be ok. That _we _were going to be ok."

"We will be ok, Nate-"

"Please, stop. If I'm being honest," He sighed. "If I'm being honest, I love you. More than anything. But if you choose to leave, I don't think that we should be engaged for the time being." He turned around to walk out of the door.

"Nate-" Ada was cut off by the sound of the door clicking shut. She closed her eyes and shook her head. There was no use in crying about it. He was right. She never even hinted that she planned on leaving for any reason at all. But calling off an engagement before it was even a day old? Not something she ever imagined Nathan doing. She got a suitcase and threw some clothes in it the fastest way she could without completely shoving everything in it.

* * *

Kellan pulled his sweatpants on and strolled to the door. He opened it and leaned against the doorframe, rubbing his eyes. "Do you know what time it is?"

"It's," Ada looked at her watch. "8:02. Now, are you gonna let me in and put on a shirt or what?"

Kellan huffed as he moved back, bringing the door with his right hand, outstretching his left arm. "Come on in."

"Thank you." Ada brought her bags in with her. "Look, I'm only gonna be here for a couple of days. My plane doesn't leave until Monday night."

"Wait, you're staying the night? Don't you have a boyfriend whom you share an apartment with?"

"Had and ex-fiancee. Besides, you'll love having me over. It'll be like our childhood all over again. You'll be the big bro who gets to boss me around, and I'll be the little sister who has to listen to everything you say and bend to your every whim." She sat her bags down and smiled. "But I do need you to drive me to the airport." Her smile fell for a second before going right back to it's old spot.

Kellan chuckled. "Fine. But you have to tell me what happened. Why you're here. This whole ex-fiancee thing."

"Long story short, I'm pregnant, I told Nathan. Turns out, he was going to propose. We fought. I accepted his kind of proposal. We went to sleep. We woke up. I told him I was leaving. We fought again. He called off the engagement, He left. Here I am. No need to worry yourself over the little details." She walked over to the kitchen area. "What do you have to eat in here? I'm starving."

Kellan shook his head, confused. "Ada, what the hell?" He followed her into the kitchen. "There's not gonna be anything in there for you."

Ada rolled her eyes at her brother, but he was right. There was nothing but alcohol in the fridge. "Is this really what you think of your liver?"

Kellan chuckled. "It's not for me. Some buddies of mine and I like to throw a party every now and then. I don't use the fridge, so I opened this up to them. But I don't drink. I actually really hate alcohol."

"So, what do you have to _eat_?" Ada closed the refrigerator and leaned on the island, jutting out one hip.

"I don't have anything to eat. The honeys on the floor usually cook for me." He winked and laughed.

"Oh, god. You are the most disgusting human being to have ever walked the earth. Besides, I doubt any of the 'honeys' on this floor want you when all you do is go to work. Shouldn't a well-defined businessman like yourself refrain from such fraternization?"

"Whatever. And the honeys _love_ to cook for me. I've been having to thwart them off lately, though. I've got my eye on one particular woman right now."

"You know what? You should totally tell me about her after you order some pizza."

* * *

"Wait," Mercedes said slowly. "Kellan has a girlfriend? And he _told you_?"

"He didn't actually tell me anything. He pretty much avoided the entire situation the whole time I was there." Ada looked over to Mercedes as they came to a stoplight.

"How did he react to you telling him you had a bun in the oven? Did he not ask you anything else about it?"

"Maybe if you listened and let me get all the way through my story…" The light turned green.

"Fine, whatever."

* * *

"Pizza? At 8 in the morning? Who does that?"

"I didn't do it until I lived in New York." Ada pulled out her phone. "Same place?" She looked up at her brother.

"Yeah, whatever. Look, Ada, you need to tell me what's going on. You're pregnant? When did that happen?"

"I don't know. 2 or so weeks ago. Why does it matter?"

"It matters because mom and dad are going to kill you."

"Oh, my god. Big bro, be my big bro." Ada looked up and smiled.

"I am being your big bro by telling you that running away is not going to fix anything. That's what you're doing, isn't it? You're running away because you don't know what to do."

"When I said be my big bro, I meant pig out on pizza with me for the weekend. I would say pizza and beer, but that's not exactly a possibility for one of us. That's what a big bro does. So are you gonna be my big bro or not?"

"What did Nate say when you left?" Kellan went on, giving her his answer.

"Nothing." Ada shrugged.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing." She reiterated.

Kellan frowned for a moment before he walked over to Ada and exhale slowly through his nose. "He doesn't know you're gone, does he?"

"Kel, why are you down my throat with this?" Ada walked around him to sit on the couch a few feet away. "He already pretty much broke off the engagement. He already knew I was going back home. He said he needed some fresh air, so I took it as an opportunity to avoid confrontation. I'm going back to Lima whether anyone likes it or not. So let me enjoy my last weekend in New York for a while. I'm going to get something to drink other than alcohol. Would you like anything?"

Kellan sighed, knowing he was defeated. "Just get me some coffee. A lot of it."

"Great. That's what I'm talking about." She grabbed her purse.

"Can you even have caffeine?"

Ada ignored him. "I've got my key, so if someone knocks, it's probably the pizza guy. Be nice and TIP HIM," She remarked, noting her brother's bad tipping manners he got from their father. "I'll be back, brother." She said delightfully as she walked out the door.

* * *

"So you left the apartment that you share with your fiancee to stay in your brother's apartment 30 minutes away for a couple of days all to avoid any confrontation with said fiancee. You don't think that that's a little strange?"

"Ex-fiancee."

"You're not over."

"We are for the time being."

"Did you ever break up with him?"

"I don't have to break up with him, Mercedes! Do you see a fucking ring on my finger?" Ada huffed. "Dammit!" She yelled.

"Whoa, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you angry or anything, I just-"

"It's not you. I mean, it _is_ you, but…" She huffed again. "I missed my turn. And now I have to go down a whole two blocks just to make a u-turn. " She said shamefully. They spent the last few minutes of the car ride in silence. Ada pulled into the parking lot and parked the car. She looked over at her sister. Mercedes was looking down at her hands in her lap, playing with them. Ada instantly felt worse. "I'm sorry, Mercy. I'm just really stressed out. I've still got mom and dad to worry about, I have to figure out how I'm going to have this baby _and_ graduate college. If I'm able to graduate, then there's a whole other slew of problems that I then have to deal with. And I know that you want to help, and I appreciate that so much. You don't even know, but I need you to lay off of all this Nathan stuff for right now. I didn't _want_ to leave him. The wound's still fresh. So, anytime you mention us as a couple, it pours salt on that wound and I just-" She sighed, trying to figure out what to say. "Now is just not a good time for anything concerning Nathan."

Mercedes looked up into her sister's eyes. "I just know how happy he makes you. I don't want anything to happen between you two that could actually destroy your relationship."

Ada chuckled. "Ha. Believe me. We could both cheat on one another and still want to be together. He's not going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere. We'll be fine. I just need some time to sort other things out first. After that, you can do all the meddling your little heart desires." She smiled. She took Mercedes' hand. "It's going to be ok. I'm going to be ok. Everything. Will be. Ok." Ada shook Mercedes' hand the whole time she talked. "Now, let's go have a look at my baby." She smiled as she unbuckled Mercedes' seatbelt and got out of the car.

Mercedes opened her door slowly, but she didn't get out for a moment. She watched her sister walk away from the car before turning back.

"You coming or not?" Ada smiled a little.

Mercedes nodded. "Y-Yeah." She stuttered. "I just have to make a quick phone call. Go ahead and get signed in. I'll be right there." When Ada walked into the building, Mercedes dialed Sam's number and called him, hoping he would pick up.

Hi, there. This is Sam, and you probably called at a _reeeally_ bad time, because I usually always answer the phone. Like, _always_. Anyhow- oh, or I'm probably asleep. Either one of those. Anyhow, leave a message at the beep. I'll get back to you at a better time. Or when I wake up, depending on which situation fits why I didn't answer your-"

_Beep._

"Hey," Mercedes chuckled. "I'm guessing I called at a bad time. If not, that means you fell asleep at the wheel and I should be really worried. I was calling to give you some last minute motivation for seeing your dad in case you needed it. You never really talked that much to me about it. But, I'm assuming you're good." She played with Ada's hamsa charm that hung from the rearview mirror. "Also, I was thinking that you should come over tonight. I'm with Ada at her appointment right now but after this, I'm free for the rest of the day. I really want to be with you tonight." She exhaled. "I love you." She said softly. "God, that feels so weird and so good to say at the same time. But yeah, be at my house by 7. Actually, make it 8. I don't know when we'll be done here. Love you again, bye."

Mercedes hung up the phone and put it in her purse as she got out of the car. When she walked in, Ada was looking at her like something was wrong. Mercedes walked quickly over to her. "What is it?" She said as she sat down beside her.

"What took you so long?" Ada's eyes had followed Mercedes from the second she walked in the door. "I almost thought they were going to call me before you came in. Then, you wouldn't be able to go back."

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "I told you, I had to make a phone call."

"A phone call to who? It couldn't wait? Everything alright?"

"Why does it matter?" Mercedes retorted. "I'm here now."

"Yeah, but you weren't. For a while. Like, 5 minutes. Who in the hell were you talking to?"

Mercedes sat and fiddled with the ring on her index finger."It was Sam. I just… I called him to tell him to join us for dinner tonight."

"And you couldn't have done that over a text that you would've typed on the way in here?" Ada wasn't angry. She just didn't know why the girl beside her took so long.

Mercedes almost spoke too low to be heard. "I guess I couldn't do that in the same way that you can't stop asking me all these damn questions-"

"Whoa." Ada drew out the vowels of the word. She was glad there was no one else in the waiting room. "I'm sorry." She said, shocked. "I won't ask you anything else. Don't worry about it." Ada shifted somewhat uncomfortably in her chair and decided to look at the decor around her.

The chair wasn't uncomfortable, she noticed. It was actually incredibly comfortable. The entire waiting room was. There was a very faint scent of cinnamon or something fall-like. But, in order to smell it, you'd have to really focus on your nose. The chairs felt like you were sitting on a pillow. Probably because a lot of pregnant women had backaches. The room had already been decorated in anticipation of fall's arrival. With real pumpkins and apples put neatly in a row on top of an awning that led to the play center for little children. The walls were painted a creamish color, but the lights gave it a fall feeling, giving off different autumn colors like yellow and orange. It was nice. She looked over at the sign in desk. There were little cutouts of turkeys pasted on the wall around the sign-in window. Mercedes was almost in the way of her view, but she managed to look around her. Only thing was, she could still see her out of the corner of her eyes. She saw that her sister was misty-eyed.

She looked at her, concerned. "Mercedes." She said softly. "What did you and Sam really talk about?"

"Nothing." Mercedes sniffed as she wiped her tears away before they fell. "He didn't answer."

"Did you guys fight or something? You were fine earlier today."

"No, no. We didn't fight." Mercedes took a breath. "Dwight's in rehab. He wrote a letter to Mary that said he wanted to see Sam, which is where he's supposed to be on his way to now. He won't really talk to me about it. I'm just worried, is all. It's nothing." Mercedes tried to dismiss herself.

"What? No, that's totally something." Ada shifted in her seat again, this time to face her sister. "You should be worried. I mean, not that there's anything going on, but you have a right to be worried." She rubbed Mercedes back soothingly.

Mercedes shook her head. "I know he's probably fine. And I know he's probably just not talking because he doesn't have anything to say, but I just feel like he's holding something back, and I don't know what to do about it." Tears were coming to her eyes again. "And, now, you're back. And you and Nate are in some kind of limbo. I know you told me not to say anything about him, but it's true. And I feel like Sam and I are already in that limbo because of his dad. I'm just trying to see if you and Nate would ever get back together because even though the situation's not the same, I just want to see something that's not on the verge of falling apart right now." Mercedes could barely take a breath she was talking so fast.

"Okay, Mercy, calm down. Take a deep breath." Ada didn't know where any of this was coming from. "It's fine. Trust me, you and Sam are not in limbo." She chuckled a little bit. "You're fine. Sam's probably just nervous or anxious or something. Chances are, he hasn't talked to anyone about it. You know how he is."

"He just told me that he was going to see his dad today. I even offered to go with him. He told me no."

"He probably told you no because he wanted to do this on his own. Or he didn't want you to see his dad in the places he's likely in right now. He's fine, you're fine, your relationship is fine." Ada tried to think of another way to console her sister. "Do you want me to talk to him?"

"What? No."

"Why not? I can just kind of gauge him a little bit. You're not the only one he's close to, you know. I can see if I can figure out what's going on. If he comes over tonight, I can do it then. If not, I'll figure something out. At least let me try."

Mercedes looked at Ada. "He _did_ always like you a little better than everyone else."

"Or, so you thought. You're the one he's had a crush on this whole time." Ada joked.

"Only because he had a crush on you and I told him he couldn't because it was illegal." Mercedes smiled softly.

"What?" Ada laughed loudly.

"Yeah." Mercedes smiled again. "11 year old Sam was so gullible. I almost couldn't deal with it. I remember this one time, Santana played this hilarious prank on him. She told him that Susie Sylvan wanted him to go with her to the McKinley High Halloween Dance. She gave him this fake address, 789 Clown Circle, told him that she was dressing up as a lion and that he was supposed to dress up as an elephant. Of course, he didn't care. Susie Sylvan was the dream of all the boys and Santana in the 5th grade. Anyways, he ended up strolling up to some house with an elephant costume on that his mom made for him." Mercedes laughed quietly. "It was probably the most adorable thing I had ever seen in my life. I ended up feeling really bad for him. It was only fun until I saw how eager he was about the whole thing."

Ada stared at Mercedes and smiled "You've loved him since you were in the 5th grade?"

"What?" Mercedes frowned. "No. I wasn't loving him. I was being compassionate." She shrugged. "You don't have to love someone to feel sorry for them."

"True, but look at you." Ada beamed. "I know love when I see it. You loved him in the 5th grade. That's so sweet." The pitch of her voice went up to a dangerous level as she poked Mercedes in the sides.

Before Ada could finish teasing her sister, a pregnant woman with curly brown hair appeared from a door beside them She looked at them. "Ada, oh my goodness!" She exclaimed. "It's been forever." She smiled brightly.

Ada turned around to see who called her. She gasped. "Angelica?" The girl she was talking to nodded. "Holy shit. You've gotten… big." She chuckled.

Ada was right, Angelica had gotten big. _Very_ big.

"7 1/2 months with twins, yeah. This is my last week before maternity leave." Angelica said as she hugged Ada tight. She looked beside Ada at Mercedes. "Mercedes, right?" She turned to Ada. "Your little sister?"

"Yeah, that's her." Ada smiled at Mercedes.

Angelica went over to Mercedes, who was now standing, and hugged her as well. "Oh, my gosh." She saw that Mercedes looked a little weirded out. "I'm sorry." Angelica beamed. "I swear, this pregnancy has made me the happiest person in the world." She giggled. "You still got those pipes that are better than your sister's?" She joked.

Mercedes nodded. "I guess you could say that."

"Fantastic." Angelica chirped. "You're the only person who's better than her at something. I swear to god, I tried so hard to beat her in the race for Valedictorian, along with everything else. She's damn near unstoppable." She laughed.

"Yeah, well, I'm going to be stoppable for a while," Ada said. "Baby waits for no one."

"Wait, you're pregnant?" Angelica gasped.

"Well, she's only 17, and we're here for one of the Joneses, so I hope so." Ada chuckled.

"Oh, my god, congrats!" Angelica hugged Ada again.

"Yeah. I'm only about 14 weeks, but I am indeed pregnant." Ada confirmed.

"I can see it! You're definitely glowing. And you're just as radiant." Angelica's cheeks looked like they were about to rip themselves apart. "I can't believe you're pregnant!" She pulled Ada in, hugging her...again.

"Oh, wow. Okay. Again with the hugging." Ada chuckled awkwardly. "I can't wait for a baby to make me this happy."

"Well every pregnancy is different, but I don't doubt your little bundle of joy will bring good things. Speaking of pregnancy, let's see how yours is going, shall we?" She opened the door to a hallway. "Right this way."

"Okay, then." Ada walked into the hallway.

"I can't believe you're pregnant. This is so amazing-"

"Angelica, I love you, and I'm extremely happy to see you again, but if you hug me, I _will_ do flip out on you, which won't be good for either of our babies. Don't hug me again." Ada smiled despite her passive-aggressive tone.

Mercedes shook her head as she smiled and followed after the two.

* * *

WHEW! Glad that's over. Ada and Nathan sure have a weird relationship going on. Weird relationships seem to run in the Jones family LOL! What did you guys think? I'm going to have the next chapter up within the week again, so stay tuned and have a good day!


	13. In a State of Disarray

Alright, y'all! back again on Tuesday as promised haha. I've been reading some reviews and things people have left/sent and realized I haven't been telling you guys what's next in the chapters! We won't do that today because I'm tired LOL but next time for sure! I can't find my horizontal line thingy so I'm just going to say I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and sorry for any typos! Also, one last thing! I'm going to be uploading every other Tuesday now instead of every Tuesday. My schedule has just gotten slightly busier so I'm going to give myself more time to write/read over future chapters. ENJOY!

* * *

Sam walked up Mercedes' porch steps. He leaned forward to knock on the door and leaned back while he waited for someone to come. He decided to replay the voicemail Mercedes left him again. It sounded so weird. Almost like she was sad about something. Was it sad or was it worried?

'But, I'm assuming you're good.'

Frustrated?

Before long, he heard someone open the door. He expected to see Mercedes, but saw her sister instead. "Hey, Sam." Ada smiled and let Sam in. She promptly hugged him. "It's so nice to see you."

Sam hugged Ada back, but pulled back with a weird face afterwards. "Hey, Ada." He said awkwardly. "You know you just saw me yesterday."

Ada stood, looking up at Sam. "I do."

"Then why did you just hug me? Since when do you hug people?"

Ada's jaw dropped slightly before returning to its previous position. "Fine, whatever." She said dully. "A friend of mine from high school works at the obgyn. She's pregnant and she's really bubbly and happy and her voice sounds like this now." Ada mimicked Angelica's voice. "And I just wanted to see what it would be like if pregnancy made me that bubbly and happy and exuberant."

"And how's that working out for you?" Sam asked as if he didn't already know.

"It's way too much effort and all I want to do is eat something and go to bed." Ada fell down on her back onto the sectional, stretching out her arms and legs. "Shit." She muttered.

"What?" Sam fell down beside her.

"I'm supposed to talk to you" She yawned as she sat up. She looked at Sam, who was stretched out like she was before. "Come on. Get up." She took him by his arms and pulled him into a sitting position. She sighed. "Look, I don't want to do this anymore than you do, but Mercedes is in the shower and you just so happened to get here so I guess I'm doing this now."

"Ada, what-"

"Mercedes wants to know the reason that you haven't been talking to her about your dad." Ada ignored Sam's face. "She thinks that you don't want to be with her anymore and that your relationship is on the verge of some sort of armageddon type shit."

"What?"

"She thinks that because you won't tell her this one thing, you don't want to be with her anymore." Ada listened to see if she heard Mercedes. When she didn't, she continued. "That's not true, right? Because if it is, Sam, I swear I'm kicking you out of this house. As long as she's been waiting to get with you-"

"No, no. That's not true at all. Literally the only reason I didn't tell her, which I already said to her, was you."

"You better not be placing your relationship troubles on me." Ada raised her voice and looked at Sam.

"No, no, no." Sam said quickly. "God, no. You're not the problem at all." If there was anything Sam was more afraid of than Mercedes, it was Mercedes' sister. And Mercedes' dad. And her mom. And her brother. Brothers. He was pretty much scared of the entire Jones clan when it came to Mercedes. Even her sisters could be little monsters. "She was so worried about you and everything that was going on with you, so I decided that I didn't want her worrying about anything else. I thought that you were enough. That was it." He took a breath and thought for a moment. "I don't want to be with her anymore? Where'd she even get that from?"

"I don't know." Ada shrugged. "She said something about no one around her being able to stay together or something. You know anything about that?"

Sam shook his head. "You need to talk to Mercedes about that. It's not my place to tell you anything about that."

"About what?" Ada asked, suddenly intrigued.

"About the things she's talking about. I shouldn't be the one you find out from."

"Sam what in the hell are you talking about?" Ada looked up the stairs for Mercedes once more, then back at Sam. "What's going on?"

A few minutes later, Sam still hadn't said anything. Ada put her hand on his shoulder. "Sam, if there's something going on, I need to know." She whispered.

"Ada, I can't tell you-"

"Can't tell you what?" Mercedes stood at the bottom of the staircase.

Sam and Ada shared a look before Sam thought of something. "What your new favorite restaurant is. Ada had no idea that there was anything around here other than Breadstix. I thought we should go there tonight instead. There's no need for you two to cook anything."

"Well, she's not cooking anything." Mercedes said matter-of-factly as she pointed at her sister. "And, I'm not actually cooking anything cooking anything. My mom said that there was a box of lasagna in the freezer. Not that one box of frozen pasta is enough for 4 people when four people includes my older brother who's here for every meal and my pregnant older sister who wants to eat anything and everything except fish as of, like, yesterday, and completely devours something as long as it's *not* fish."

Sam chuckled at Mercedes' rambling. He looked over to Ada for confirmation. She laughed a little, too. 'Aversions.' She mouthed.

"Anyways," Mercedes never stopped talking. "I just planned on ordering a pizza or something." She stopped talking. "Actually, yeah. We should go out. Because knowing my parents, they're not going to be able to stay for the entire parent-teacher night on account of the having to work, which means that Anaya is going to have to miss out on it. Again." She said, annoyed.

"Merce, calm down." Ada groaned. "All your obsessing over our parents' whereabouts is making my head hurt."

"Your sister's right." Sam walked over to Mercedes and took one of her hands. "Your parents don't have any reasons to not be able to stay for the entire thing tonight. We can all go out and have a good time."

"Yeah, right." Mercedes pursed her lips. "I'm a Jones, Sam. So is Ada. So are my parents. We can't live without crazy incidents happening to us or someone in our family every other day. It's practically illegal to not be-"

"Are you alright?" Ada interrupted. "We come home, you're fine. You go upstairs, take a shower, and you're cranky all of a sudden."

"I'm not cranky." Mercedes looked out the window above the kitchen sink at the large, beautifully mowed lawn. "I just have this feeling that Anaya's gonna be dropped off again, upset, and ready to burst into tears because her parents couldn't be there for another event that she had. Then, I'll have to find a way to make it up to her."

"Well, it's too late for ice cream." Ada chuckled. She cleared her throat awkwardly when she noticed that that didn't make Mercedes laugh.

Ada looked at Sam, who just looked back at her and shook his head.

"Well, would you look at that." Mercedes said dryly as she saw her dad's white BMW pull into the driveway. She marched over to the door with a look on her face.

Sam quickly stood in front of her and put his hands out to stop her. "Whatever you're thinking about doing or saying, don't do or say it. Let me answer the door." He kissed her on the forehead. He and Ada shared a look right before they heard footsteps on the porch. Sam walked over to the front door and opened it with a smile. "Hey, Mr. Reg. How's it going?"

"Samuel," Reggie laughed. "I'm not surprised to see you here." He joked.

"Neither am I, sir." Sam carried on.

Mercedes stepped up behind Sam with her hands on her hips. "Well, then, tonight must just be full of non-surprises, dad, because I'm not surprised to see you here, either."

Sam closed his eyes for a moment and sucked his teeth as he cursed Mercedes in his head.

"Well, this is my house, Mercedes. My being here shouldn't be a surprise, considering this is where I live." Reggie quipped.

Mercedes looked at Anaya's face, and she became even more irritated. "Well," Mercedes stressed the word as she stepped in front of Sam. "It wouldn't be a surprise if it were about 8, which is when you would be here had you stayed at the school for the duration of the function that was being held there."

"Hey, Ada, where's Amara?" Sam looked behind him at Ada put his hands on Mercedes' shoulders to calm her before things escalated.

"She's probably in the game room." Ada said with a frown on her face.

"Cool." Sam moved Mercedes to his side and bent down towards her little sister. "Hey, Naya. How about you and I go and do whatever you sister and Prince are doing?"

Anaya tried to smile a little bit and nodded. She didn't say anything. She just followed Sam.

Mercedes looked at her father. "Ada, can you go get my keys, please? They're probably in the kitchen somewhere."

"Sure." Ada quietly stepped off to the kitchen, but hid behind the wall that separated the living room and the kitchen.

"Where are you all going?" Reggie asked.

"Out."

"To eat?"

"Yeah, unless you think that I'm taking my little sisters out to a high school party."

"I doubt that, but I'm pretty sure your mother left you something to eat."

"True, but one box of frozen lasagna isn't exactly enough food for 6 people."

"You act like there's not anymore food in that kitchen, Mercedes. It's enough for 5, I'm sure you'll be able to spread it out a tad bit thinner-"

"I really can't believe you. This is actually and completely unbelievable. Out of all days, you two had to pick this one to not be there for one of us."

"She's 9, Mercedes. She'll get over it. You should, too."

"She's your youngest child and there was probably something at the school that she really wanted you and mom to see but that just didn't work out. Never does."

"Mercedes your mother and I tried very hard to work something out."

"Where is Mom?"

Reggie looked down at his watch and tugged on his suit a bit. "She's working."

"Why, would you look at that, another non-surprise."

"Stop it with the sarcasm, Mercedes. I'm getting tired of it."

"Are you going to give me some money for us to eat with or not?"

"Not until you stop being disrespectful-"

"Then you stop being disrespectful."

"I swear, it's always something with you." Reggie flared his nostrils.

"You bet. The same way it's always something with you and mom."

"Your mother and I tried to work something out."

"You're both superiors at your job. If you had tried to work something out, you would've figured it out."

"First of all, as superiors, we have to be at work when we are needed. Second of all, I'm your father , so I would suggest you learn how to talk to me in my own house."

"I'm going to have to talk to you later, _Dad_. I've got to go wipe away your daughter's tears that you caused, by the way. Shocker, right?" Mercedes said angrily as she shut the door.

She took a breath and turned around. "Ada, did you find my keys?"

Ada appeared from the wall she had been hiding behind. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"That." Ada walked closer to her sister. "With Dad."

"You were eavesdropping?" Mercedes accused.

"I was going to find your keys. They've been there in the dish right beside you since you got home."

Mercedes looked down at the table at her side. Her keys were, sure enough, in the bowl with all the other keys in the house. "So you eavesdropped?" She looked back up at Ada.

"Oh my god. Yes, Merce. I eavesdropped. Why were you being so mean to him?"

Mercedes ignored her. "Sam, let's go." She yelled.

"I asked you a question, Mercedes." Ada said sternly.

The two youngest Jones children came down the stairs, followed by Sam. Sam went over to Mercedes and whispered in her ear. "She's not talking."

Mercedes looked up at her boyfriend, then at Anaya, who was quietly standing by the couch and looking at the floor. "Not at all?" She said worriedly.

Sam shook his head. "Not a word."

"Okay. Just go ahead and take Amara out to my car. We'll be there in a second."

Sam frowned. "Is Ada not coming?"

Mercedes just shrugged and gave him a quick peck before walking towards Ada. "Look, just forget what you saw or heard or whatever."

"How in the hell am I supposed to just forget something like that?"

"I'm going to talk to her," Mercedes point at Anaya. "And then, I'm driving whoever is in my car to go eat. Now, are you going to come? Or are you just going to stand here and ask me questions about a conversation that you weren't even a part of?"

Ada rolled her eyes and walked out the door.

Mercedes took a deep breath and walked over to Anaya, who had sat down on the couch. Once Sam and Amara left, she bent down in front of her sister and put her hands on her shoulders. "Hey, baby girl." Mercedes said softly. "You doing okay?"

Anaya didn't answer, she just looked down at her feet.

"I know you really wanted mom and dad to stay for your event." Mercedes tried to think of a way to console the girl in front of her. "If I had known, I would've been there for you."

Anaya shrugged with a pout on her face. "It's okay. It wasn't anything that special anyways."

"Hey, don't say that." Mercedes said sternly. "Everything you do is special, Naya. Look at me." She lifted her sister's head up and their eyes met. "Everything you do is special. Don't ever think anything otherwise and don't let anyone tell you anything other than that. Do you hear me? I don't care what it was. It was special enough for you to want them to come." With every moment that she looked at her sister, Mercedes felt more and more angry at her parents. "Okay. Here's what we're going to do." Mercedes started to think. She looked at her watch. "It'll be too late for ice cream in a few minutes, so we can't do that. I have a game tomorrow, but on Friday, I'll take you anywhere you want, okay? We can go get ice cream. Or," She smiled. "The carnival opens Friday. I can take you and Mara. Stevie and Stacy can go too, if they'd like. How's that?"

"I guess that's fine." Anaya returned her gaze to the floor.

Mercedes sighed. "Ok, Naya. I'm going to trust you with something, okay? It's a really big secret that you can't tell anyone. You think you can do that?" When her sister nodded, Mercedes went on. "Alright. Well, Ada is having a baby." Mercedes chuckled when Anaya's face lit up.

"A baby?" Anaya chirped.

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah. It's exciting, I know. We're both going to be aunts. And when the baby gets here, he or she is going to be sooo cute and precious. And they'll have those cute little baby hands and feet. Doesn't that sound exciting?"

Anaya hadn't stop smiling. "Yeah." She giggled.

Mercedes continued. "So, we can do something fun this weekend, but if you ever feel sad or upset, think about the baby. Think about the cute little noises they make that everybody loves so much and how they're going to just love everyone and everything. Alright?"

"Okay." Mercedes' sister nodded once more.

"Did that make you feel any better?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Come here." Mercedes pulled her sister in for a hug.

When they separated, Anaya asked Mercedes a question. "Is the baby going to stay with us?"

Mercedes' eyebrows went up. "Umm," She didn't even know what to say. "I think you should ask Ada that. But not right now, because no one can know that you know this. Okay?"

"Okay. Do you know how long she'll be here?"

"Another thing you'll have to ask her." Mercedes looked at her sister for a moment before standing up. "Well, if you're feeling better, I say we go out to eat." She took her sister's hand and pulled her off the couch. "Go ahead out. I'm going to lock the door." When Anaya walked out of the door, Mercedes took out her phone to send a text to Santana.

Hey. Can't go out this weekend. Anaya had a bad day so I'm taking her to the fair. Unless you wanna come?

She put her phone in her pocket and felt it vibrate. "That was quick." She said as she pulled it back out.

Ok, so I may or may not have just made a bet with your little sisters about whether or not I can get you to hold my hand. Don't make this harder than it has to be.- Sam

* * *

Mercedes giggled and locked the door before walking out of the house. Mercedes walked out to her car in the school's parking lot. She was excited to have a free afternoon. She was supposed to be taking her and Sam's siblings to the fair, but they decided to wait until tomorrow. When she got to her car, she saw Santana and Brittany laughing beside Santana's car. Mercedes put her stuff in the backseat and called out to Santana.

Santana's smile faltered a little when she saw Mercedes. "Hey, what's up?"

Despite sensing that something was off, Mercedes walked over to where her friends were. "Anaya decided to wait until tomorrow to go to the fair. You want to go back to our earlier plans?"

Santana frowned as she leaned off of the car. "So, since your sister doesn't want to do what you dumped me for today, you think I want to do something with you like we were supposed to in the first place?"

"I mean, if that's the way you want to look at it." Mercedes looked at Santana, slightly confused. "But there's more to my reason for rainchecking you than you think."

"I don't care what there is to it, Mercedes. You blew me off and I don't feel like giving you another chance right now. Let's go, Brittany." Santana turned around to get in the car while Brittany walked to the passenger's side.

"Okay, then I'm confused. I thought we already talked about this. Things have been happening on both our ends that has kept us from hanging out lately that we couldn't really do anything about."

Santana scoffed and turned back around to face Mercedes. "My god, you can't be serious."

Mercedes put her hands out in front of her. "What are you talking about?"

Santana got in Mercedes face. "Why don't you just go to more fake appointments with your sister or something." She opened the car door again and got in.

Mercedes' eyes widened with shock and confusion. "And what the hell does that mean?"

"Sam told me about Ada's OB/GYN appointment." Santana started her car. "How it was moved up. But you told me that the appointment was already happening that day. You two should get your stories straight the next time you want to not hang out with me."

"Wait," Mercedes frowned. "I said that?" Then it hit her. "Oh, my god. I said that. Tana, I didn't mean to say that. I must've gotten my days mixed up or something because I already knew when the appointment was supposed to be. I didn't lie to you to avoid hanging out with you."

"Oh, really? Then what about the part when you and Sam and your sisters all went out to eat. Forgot about that, too?"

"Santana, I swear to you, that was absolutely a last minute thing. Plus, I had just gotten in an argument with my dad and things were just crazy everywhere I looked. There was so much on my mind-"

"Whatever, Mercedes. Save your excuses for someone who's going to listen to them." And with that, Santana left the parking lot.

Mercedes walked back to her car. She didn't notice that during her ordeal with Santana, Sam had pulled up beside her car in his truck. She walked back with a smile on her face. "Hey." She went up to his rolled down window and kissed him.

Sam kissed her back and looked at her weird. "What was that?" He nodded towards the spot Mercedes' had just left from.

"It was nothing. Actually, it was a lot more than nothing, but I'm not even completely sure if it just happened, so I really don't want to talk about it." She moved to let him out of the truck.

When his feet were on the ground, Sam wrapped his arms around Mercedes' waist. "Did you two finally make some plans?"

Mercedes brought her arms under his and laid her head on his chest. "Anything but. If what I think just happened just happened, we probably won't ever be doing anything together. Ever again."

They started to rock from side to side.

"You're crazy." Sam chuckled.

"I'm completely serious. She's not angry because we haven't been hanging out. She's angry because she thinks I've been lying to her."

"Mercedes—"

"And you know if there's anything Santana hates most, it's lying."

"I love you." Sam smiled.

"What?"

"I love you. Like, really, really love you." His smile grew wider.

Mercedes furrowed her brows and shook her head, "Sam, that-"

"Has nothing to do with what we're talking about. I know. But, I'm just saying it." He tightened his embrace. "Like, this." He said. "This right here. I could just do this for the rest of my life. This is all that I need."

Mercedes felt her heart swell. "You also need air, oxygen, food, water. And you need to maintain a constant body temperature, blood pressure, pH bala-"

"Thank you, Smartie Pants. I already know that. What I mean is that aside from all the things that all humans need, I don't need anything else but this. But you." He kissed the side of her forehead.

Mercedes giggled as she lifted her head to plant a kiss on both his cheeks, then his lips. " I love you too, Sammy."

Before she could put her head back on his chest, Sam used his hand to cradle it and bring her into another kiss. They continued kissing and their hands switch places, hers going behind his head and in his hair, his returning to her waist. The electricity from a month ago is still there, but there's something different now. A sinking, break-open-the-sky kind of feeling. Or was it a vein-throbbing, adrenaline-coursing-through-their-bloodstream feeling? Mercedes knew both these types of feelings all too well. She pulled away from him, but didn't get too far because Sam kept his grip on her waist. "No." She said.

Sam didn't say anything, he just frowned.

Mercedes looked up at her boyfriend. "Don't make me say it, Sam." She said flatly.

Sam's frown deepened.

Mercedes huffed. "I don't know what you felt just now, but if it's what I felt, then I'm saying no."

Sam kept his frown. "What I felt when, exactly?"

Mercedes took Sam's hands off of her and put them at his sides. "Just now."

"Okay. I'm going to explain something to you, babe." He went into his truck and got his letterman jacket out of it. "English? Not really my best subject. In fact, it's my worse. I have a 70 something in it. Barely enough to keep me on the team." He pushed his jacket towards her.

Mercedes looked down at the jacket, then back up at Sam. "What is that for?"

"Well, as someone who is on a sports team at the school, it's for me to show off. But it's also for my girlfriend to wear when she gets cold. Or just whenever."

"I'm not cold."

"Yeah, you are. I can see the goosebumps on your arms from a mile away."

Mercedes' eyes rolled to the back of her head. "Sam, the goosebumps aren't from me being… cold."

Sam laughed. "Mercedes, if you're not cold then-" He stopped laughing. "Oh." Sam said lowly as mouth formed a tiny 'o' and his eyes widened. "You're not cold… because you're hot." He paused and fought a smile. "Like… hot, hot?." He nodded towards the ground rather than nodding at her specifically.

Mercedes didn't know whether to laugh or scream. She just covered her face and sighed. "Yes, Sam. That is correct. Which is why I'm telling you 'no' right now. Because I'm not ready to do any of that with you yet."

"Why not?"

"Why not?" Mercedes looked at Sam like he was crazy. "Because we're 17. And, out of all the Jones children who have been in or are still in high school, only two of us have not been pregnant before we graduated college. That's 50/50. And I plan on keeping it that way."

"So, you don't want to have sex with me because you're afraid you'll get pregnant?" Sam asked.

"Could you not talk so loud?" Mercedes hissed. When Sam laughed in her face she backed away from him. "Why is it that everyone I'm involved with is an absolute lunatic?" She muttered.

Sam tried to stop laughing, but his efforts were in vain. He doubled over in laughter this, only able to stop when he saw Mercedes putting her seat belt on. "Wait, wait, wait." He ran over to her and knocked on her window. "Babe, wait."

Mercedes rolled her window down. "You think I'm just bringing this up for shits and giggles, Sam? Because I'm not."

Sam leaned into the car window smiling like an idiot. "I know that, I know. Trust me. I don't plan on sleeping with you. Okay?"

Mercedes rolled her eyes and began to roll up the window.

"Okay, not what I meant." Sam put his hand in the window and waited until Mercedes looked at him. "What I'm saying is, you really have nothing to worry about. I don't want to do anything with you until we're ready. Or, until _you're_ ready"

"What does that mean, Sam?" Mercedes was almost afraid to ask.

"If we're being honest, and, by honest, I mean completely honest, I've been ready to do _anything_ with you since we were 13. I think I can wait a little while longer." He chuckled.

"That's disgusting."

"Disgusting?"

"So, what? You've just been thinking nasty thoughts about me when I wore shorts and a tank top around you every time we spent the night together somewhere?" Mercedes asked sternly.

"Dear God, please let me stop putting my foot in my mouth." Sam said to himself. "All I'm trying to say is this: I've been able to hold down the fort on my sexual appetite for the past four years. If you don't want to do something, you don't have to worry about it. Let's say that." He opened the car door and brushed his lips against hers.

She smiled. "I hate you-"

"You love me." He kissed her again.

"I wanna thank you for how mature you're being about this. I know it was sudden and we hadn't really talked about it-"

"It's been on your mind, though. I can tell."

Mercedes sighed tiredly. "Maybe, but my mind is in a lot of places right now. Trust me, that's not the only thing." She chuckled.

"Well, what's on your mind?"

"Well, for starters-"

"Why don't we talk about it on our date tonight?" Sam interrupted as he closed Mercedes' car door and got in his truck.

Mercedes gave Sam a confused look. "We're… we're not going on a date tonight."

"Oh, really?" Sam started his truck. "Because I'm pretty sure I just told you that I wanted to talk about what's on your mind over the date we're having tonight. I wouldn't mention a date if there wasn't going to be a date, Mercedes. I'll be at your house at 6. But you won't be ready, so we'll leave at 6:30-7." He backed out of the parking spot and drove off.

Mercedes sat in her car for a minute. "What in the hell?"

When Mercedes walked in her front door, Ada was asleep in the loveseat. Mercedes went over to her and bent down to her stomach. "Hi, Baby." She whispered with a smile on her face.

"Tell that baby to stop giving me such a hard time when I'm trying to sleep." Ada said, her eyes still closed.

Mercedes nearly jumped out of her skin. "God, Ada. Don't fucking do that."

Ada chuckled. "You've got the worst nerves I've ever seen on a human being. You should look at getting some training on that or something."

Mercedes smoothed down her ponytail and took a breath. "Don't. What's keeping you from sleeping?"

"Not only do I have to pee all the time, but I can't get comfortable. Also, if not getting comfortable wasn't enough, since I can't sleep at night, I end up sleeping during the day, which is only making things worse." Ada sat up to let her sister sit beside her.

Mercedes sat in the newly empty spot. "Well, what are you going to do? You can't keep this up forever. Mom and Dad are going to have more and more questions about this 'project' and you can't tell them you haven't worked on it because you've been sleeping all day."

"Mom and Dad never ask me about anything. Especially not since I was 15."

"That's not true-"

"Oh, it's more than true." Ada said. "They never ask me anything like that. When I was six and I broke my arm, Dad wasn't there. He never thought to ask what happened, never asked me how I was doing, nothing. When I was, like, three-"

"Ada, there's no way you can remember something from when you were three." Mercedes looked at her sister. "Six? Possibly. But three? No."

"Scientists have proven that you can remember things from as early as three years old."

"True. However, a study shows that age 7 is the time that we really start remembering things as they happened, instead of forming false memories." Mercedes avowed.

Ada chuckled. The one thing Ada always noticed about Mercedes was how smart she was. "You little walking encyclopedia bitch." That prompted a laugh from Mercedes as well. "What are you not better than me at?"

"You know, I don't know, because I'm a better singer than you, too." Mercedes took out her phone and dialed a number.

Ada cleared her throat. "Are we not having a conversation?"

"Just, wait a minute. I'm calling Sam."

"You don't need to call him. He's probably gonna be here in a few minutes."

"Yeah, we have a 'date' tonight, but I don't want to go."

"What? No." Ada jumped and looked at her sister. "You should go out."

"He _just_ told me about it right before I came here, he's gonna be here in 2 hours, and I don't feel like going out tonight." She took her phone away from her ear. "He didn't answer." She put her chin in the palm of her hand. "He didn't even work up to it. He was just all 'Hey, Mercedes. How about we talk about your business and your feelings on a date tonight. Oh, you didn't know we had a date tonight? Well, darling, it has to exist because I just told you about it and I'm the be all end all when it comes to future events because I-'"

"What did he really say?" Ada laughed.

"_That is what he said, Ada._" Mercedes said, annoyed.

"You should go out with him. He's probably taking you to the fair or something."

"I'm already taking everybody else to the fair tomorrow. Why do I need to go today _and_ tomorrow?"

"Because tomorrow, you'll have a seven, eleven, and two nine year olds dragging you around."

"Well, I don't feel like going anywhere today." Mercedes' phone rang, she picked it up. "It's Sam." She answered the phone. "Hey, why didn't you answer?"

"My mom wanted me to stop by the grocery store and get some things for the homeless family at our church."

Mercedes frowned. "Sam?"

"Yup?"

"Do you, uh, have the money for that? I mean, I know they're in need and all, but you guys kind of need to save your money." That came out worse than Mercedes intended for it to.

"Well, considering the fact that we have food in our home and the lights are on and the other utilities work in my family's house that my parents are able to pay for, I think we can stand to buy a few non perishables for a family who _really_ can't afford them. People who are actually homeless. I feel like _that's_ who needs the most help." Sam said.

"I didn't mean for it to come out like that, I'm sorry. I just know you've got a lot of stuff that you already have to pay for and how your mom can get a little… extra with the giving spirit. That's all. You'll let me know if you need anything, right?"

"Don't do this, Mercedes."

"I'm not trying to do anything, Sam." Mercedes put her free hand up in defense. "I'm just saying."

Ada tapped Mercedes on the shoulder. "What happened?" She whispered.

Mercedes shook her head. "Anyways, I was calling to tell you that I don't think we should go out tonight."

"Are you kidding me?" Sam laughed dryly. "So, what? I'm too poor to take you on a date now?"

"That's not what I'm saying, babe. It's just that you brought up the idea of a date out of nowhere when I thought that you were just going to come here and we were going to watch a movie or chill or something."

"I don't want to come to your house and 'chill', Mercedes. I want to take you _out. _On a date. You've been my girlfriend for over a month now and we haven't gone on one official date yet."

"I know. But Sam, I'm really tired and I was really just looking forward to coming home and relaxing."

"Alright, Mercedes." Sam said it like it was nothing, but Mercedes could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

"So, you're coming over?" Mercedes tried to ignore his attitude.

"Probably not. Starting to think that I don't feel like doing anything today either."

Mercedes rolled her eyes and breathed in deeply through her nostrils, trying to keep calm. "Sam, I really wanted to talk to you about something."

"Well, we're on the phone. That's what people make phone calls for. To talk to someone."

Mercedes closed her eyes and breathed frustratingly once again. "_In person,_ Sam." Mercedes glanced at Ada. "Okay." She took a deep breath. "I don't really feel like arguing and fighting right now. Don't forget to meet us at the fair at 12 tomorrow." She paused before the next part, "I love you." She hung up the phone and put her forehead in her hands.

"You wanna tell me what all that was?" Ada asked slowly.

"I don't know, Ada. I really don't know." She sat herself up. "Where's Prince?"

"Probably upstairs with Little A."

"Where's Little A?"

"Probably upstairs with Big A."

"And Big A is?"

"Probably upstairs doing Little A's homework." Ada chuckled and rested her hand on her stomach.

Mercedes looked at where her sister's hand was. "I didn't even notice how much you were showing until the appointment the other day. It's crazy."

Ada smirked. "Why do you think I wear baggy clothes all the time? My secret plan. If you can't tell I'm pregnant and you _know_ I'm pregnant, Mom and Dad won't have any idea."

"Yeah. If I didn't know you were pregnant, I'd definitely not assume anything."

"Really? Nothing? Because my boobs have gotten ridiculously bigger."

Mercedes chuckled. "Well, it's not like they were _that_ small in the first place." She said to herself.

"Oh, fuck you." Ada laughed and looked over to her sister. "Besides, I don't have the biggest boobs out of the entire family." She teased.

"Please, there's no way mine are bigger than yours."

"Mercedes, you've had those round boulders on your chest since you were 14."

"Whatever. Mine still probably aren't the biggest."

"Well, whoever's beating you is barely doing so."

Mercedes rolled her eyes playfully. "Okay, Ada. Since I have the biggest 'boulders', you should give me my room back."

Ada smiled. "You can have it. I'm not as bad off as I used to be, with the morning sickness and all. So it's yours."

There was a knock at the door. "I got it." Mercedes went to the door, opened it, and smiled. "Hey, Mom." She stepped aside to let her mother in.

"Hey, sweetheart. I've got the stuff for dinner tonight. Hope you guys are hungry!" Diane walked in the door. "What are you two doing in here?"

Mercedes shrugged playfully, "I _was_ trying to get in a couple episodes of RHOA but Ada decided to mess with me."

"Please, you were practically begging for someone to talk to you. And _I_ was watching tv first."

Diane chuckled. then walked into the kitchen.

Mercedes sat back down with her sister, who had a weird look on her face.

"Fuck." Ada muttered.

Mercedes looked over. "What?"

Ada closed her eyes and frowned. "Fish."

"What about it?"

"She has it. She has fish. Oh, my god." Ada put her forehead in one of her hands.

"Are you okay?"

Ada didn't say anything, she just kept her head in her hand.

"Go to the bathroom. Hurry up." Mercedes pushed Ada off of the couch slightly.

"I was thinking about making chicken tetrazzini tonight, but we might end up with a full spread tonight." Diane started putting away the newly bought groceries. "Salmon en papillote. Add some lemon and basil and asparagus. Put some rice on the side. What do you think? My mouth's watering at the thought." She smiled brightly.

Mercedes went into the kitchen to help her mother. "Well, I don't know. Don't really think I want Salmon tonight. What else you got?"

"Let's see," Diane walked over to the bags she placed on the island. "I've also got some green beans and some peas. I could put something together with the tilapia that's in the freezer-"

"I don't really think I'm in the mood for seafood tonight. Whatever we have I'll probably end up making it in bulk, so I'm trying to find something easy. Knowing your brother like I do, he'll eat enough for three people all by himself." She chuckled as she left the kitchen before coming back and looking at Mercedes. "I'm gonna finish putting that up later. You don't have to help." sat in the sectional.

Mercedes frowned as she followed her mother to the living room. "Jay's the reason you're making whatever in bulk? You always make lots of everything."

"No. There was only going to be 5 of us, but Edith's coming to stay for the weekend. I also thought that Sam might be over."

Mercedes smiled. Edith was her grandmother and she loved her a lot. Mercedes' mother grew up in Georgia, and when her dad died 4 years ago, Edith moved up north to Fort Wayne. Mercedes smile faltered after she did some math in her head. "Okay, but you said 5. Is Dad not coming?"

Diane took a deep breath. "No, Mercedes. He's working. You know that."

"I don't know that, but I guess I should have. Knowing my father like I do."

"Mercedes." Diane hissed.

"You need to figure out how to get him here sometime, Mom."

"Your father isn't here _all_ the time, no. But don't act like he doesn't live here anymore. And don't forget, when he's not here, he's out making sure we keep the lights on."

"Yes, absolutely." Mercedes said sarcastically. "Because we're barely making it by, right? It's so hard to keep the lights on in this huge house because Chief Executive Officers get paid so little, right?"

"Why do you keep bringing this up, Mercedes? Like I've said before, we're lucky we even got to stay in Lima. The company wanted your father to move to California."

"Oh, that didn't happen? I'm so surprised. Since I never see him, I thought that-"

"What the hell, Merce?" Ada appeared suddenly.

Mercedes looked at her sister before shaking her head. "Ada-"

"_No._ You've been doing this thing with dad ever since my…" Ada paused and glanced at Diane. "Doctor's appointment." She hoped her mother didn't think anything of the way she said that. "You keep talking bad about him and you won't tell me why."

"It's nothing, Ada." Diane said calmly. "She's just upset that your father's been missing some things recently."

Ada looked at Mercedes. "Well?" After no response, she shook her head. "Okay, whatever. I'm going to take a nap." Before she could get up, Mercedes spoke.

"Dad doesn't care anymore."

"_Mercedes_." Diane barked. "You will stop disrespecting your father in this house."

"I imagine that that would be a lot easier if it was like he actually lived here. He's never here, he's never at any events or PTOs or anything." Mercedes retorted. "And it's not even about me. It's about Big A and Little A. Honestly, I don't give a damn if he never shows up to anything I do again. But our little sisters," She gestured between her and Ada. "_Your _youngest daughters," She pointed at her mother. "They deserve better than that."

Diane slowly rose up from her place on the sectional and took a deep breath. "I'm making chicken tetrazzini tonight. I'm going to go get started on it." She got up and looked at her penultimate daughter. "Mercedes, I don't know what in the hell you're getting so riled up about, but you figure it out and you cut it short before your grandma gets here. We're not doing this. Especially not tonight." She walked to the kitchen.

Ada looked between her mother and her sister. "Grandma? Grandma Edith?"

Mercedes ignored her. "I'm going upstairs. Let me know when grandma gets here." Mercedes started towards the stairs but stopped and turned around. "Actually, don't. I'm just going to take a nap. If I'm not up before dinner, come get me then." She started walking again.

"So, just gonna assume Grandma Edith is coming, back to the Dad we not talking about that?" Ada asked. No response. She huffed and laid back down.

* * *

Mercedes was in her bed facing away from the door. She was already loving having her room back. As she drifted off, there was a knock at the door. "Ada, there's no way Mom finished dinner that fast." She waited for whoever was at the door to leave. Instead, she heard her door creak open. "Ada, I swear." She turned over and Ada wasn't there. It was Sam. Mercedes' jaw dropped a little. "Hey."

Sam nodded his head quick and waved. He shifted uncomfortably. "I'm angry at you."

Mercedes readjusted herself in the bed. "I'm sorry about that-"

"I don't know what it is, Mercedes. I don't know why you can't just let me do what I choose to do or why you insist on financially counseling me every time you get the chance, but it's not going to be long before I grow really tired of it."

"It came out wrong, Sam. I tried to tell you that." Mercedes declared.

"I know you did. That doesn't change how I feel about it." You could Sam's anger in his voice. "I'm not stupid, Mercedes. If I couldn't afford to do something, I wouldn't do it."

Mercedes looked down at her hands in her lap and played with them. "I'm sorry again." She mumbled. "Can I make it up with something to eat?" She looked up at him with her beautiful doe eyes.

Looking at Mercedes, Sam immediately felt his anger dissipating. "I can't stay." He moved onto the bed. "I just wanted to come tell you how mad I was at you. I also just wanted to tell you that I probably won't be mad at you by the time I leave. Not because we're gonna do anything. But because I can't stay mad at you for more than 5 minutes at a time." He put his arm around her shoulder.

She smiled softly and placed her head on the front of his shoulder. "I didn't want you to think that I was 'financially counseling' you. And I know you're not stupid. I was only saying that because I know that you guys have been trying to save money lately and I thought that spending money you're trying to save for the good of someone else would be a little counterproductive."

"Big word."

Mercedes chuckled. "If you're going to keep giving things to other people, you're defeating the purpose of actually putting money aside for your family."

Sam tucked his lips in some. "I guess you're right. But those people were in need, Cedes."

"They might've been in need, Sam, but things for your family are tight at it is. I'm all for giving. You know that. But if you need to save, you need to save. Alright?"

"Mercy, I can't just-"

"If you still want to help them out, I'll give you something, okay? But you guys should keep saving. You don't know how long your dad's going to be in rehab." Mercedes tried to hint at the situation with Sam's dad in hopes that he would open up about what happened when he went to see him.

"Yeah, you're right. My mom's been looking for another job, though." Well, she tried.

Mercedes sighed internally and laid her head on Sam's shoulder. "HR?"

"Yeah. Finding a good paying job is a lot easier with a graduates degree." After his dad got sober the first time, Sam's mom went back to college so that if something ever happened again, she wouldn't have to worry about how they would get by. Only problem was, his mom never actually went job searching afterwards.

"Do you think she knew it would happen again?"

"Who knows?" Sam shrugged the shoulder that Mercedes wasn't on. "But when you have a child, a toddler, and a baby on the way, I think you want to be prepared just in case."

"I understand that." Mercedes said.

There was a moment of silence between the couple.

"I have to go soon." Sam kissed her forehead.

"Why?"

"Because you're lying here beside me and you're in a pretty tight tank top and leggings, which are an ultimate weakness of mine, and we had a conversation about this earlier and I told you that I would be able to wait and waiting is gonna be pretty hard if you keep showing off all you got like that." Sam said in one breath.

Mercedes chuckled. "Sam, just calm down." She took his hand. "I didn't mean we had to wait until we were married or anything. I just mean not right now."

"Alright, so not right now. What about tomorrow?"

"No."

"Two weeks from now?"

Mercedes laughed again as she got up from the bed and walked into her bathroom. "No, Sam. I'll let you know when. It's going to at least be a few months."

"You remember that thing I said about satisfying my sexual appetite?" Sam followed her and leaned against the doorframe.

"I do." Mercedes let her hair down and put it back up.

"Yeah, well, it was a lot easier when I didn't know you were thinking about…"

"Sex?"

Sam shifted and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah."

Mercedes smiled wickedly and looked at Sam in her mirror. "I'm not thinking about it. Are you?"

"I can't stand you."

Mercedes bent over and rinsed her face in her sink. "Towel." She stuck her hand out.

Sam pushed himself off the doorframe and grabbed her towel from her shower rack, handing it to her. "You think you're slick, you know. Telling me that you're not thinking about it."

Mercedes shrugged as she wiped her face. "I'm not."

"Yeah, you are."

"How are you going to tell me what I'm thinking about?" She questioned.

"I _am_ you, Mercy. We always think the same thing."

"I'm not thinking about sex, Sam." Mercedes said again. Truth be told, she actually wasn't. At least, not until Sam said something about it. She walked out of her bathroom and stood at the foot of her bed, crossing her arms. "Honestly."

"So, if I just…" Sam walked slowly toward her. "Strolled over to you like that. And decided to wrap my arms around your waist like this," He did that. "You wouldn't feel a certain way?"

Mercedes tried not to laugh. "I'd think it was really sweet and romantic of you." She said sweetly. "It wouldn't get me in the mood though."

"What about if I did this?" He kissed her passionately. "And whispered in your ear like this." It was more than just a whisper, it was definitely a lustful hiss of sorts.

Mercedes was nowhere near phased. "Is that how you've gotten other girls into bed with you? By breathing in their ears and taking those tentacles you call arms and lacing them around their waists?" She smirked.

Sam abruptly shoved Mercedes on her back onto her bed and climbed on top of her. He looked at her, waiting for her to laugh again.

She didn't laugh, though. Instead, they both found themselves, breathing almost silently, big brown eyes staring into intense green ones.

"Hey, Mercedes, Mom wants you to-" Ada burst into the door to see Sam on top of Mercedes. "She wants you to set the table." She slowly backed out of the room.

Mercedes laughed again. "Boy, get off of me before we end up getting caught in the act or something."

Sam didn't say or do anything. He was mortified.

"Sam?" Mercedes waved her and in her boyfriend's face. "You in there? I need you to get off of me now." She tilted her head and looked at him sideways. "Seriously. Get off and stop looking at my boobs." After a moment, Mercedes gently pushed Sam over to the side and got up.

"Fuck." Sam whisper-shouted.

"What, Sam?"

Sam's eyes widened. "Oh, you know what."

Mercedes smiled and pulled Sam up from the floor. "We weren't doing anything."

Sam pouted. "We know that, but Ada doesn't."

"Well, you could always explain it to her at dinner tonight." Mercedes tried to persuade him.

"I can't stay." Sam cupped Mercedes' cheeks with his hands and put their foreheads together. "I told you that."

Mercedes kissed Sam's lips sweetly. "What if I told you my mom was making chicken tetrazzini?"

Sam gasped and brought his hands away from Mercedes' face. "Chicken tetrazzini?"

"Uh huh."

"I fucking love your mom's chicken tetrazzini."

"I know you do."

"With the teeny tiny noodles?"

Mercedes giggled. "Yes, with the teeny tiny noodles. Or, as everyone else calls them, angel hair pasta."

Sam sighed. "Guess you could just bring some for me tomorrow when we meet at the fair." He backed away from her and began to walk out of the room.

"What if I told you that Grandma Edith was coming tonight?"

Sam gasped again and raced over to where Mercedes was standing. "Grandma Edith?"

"Grandma Edith." Mercedes assured.

"I fucking love Grandma Edith-"

"Hey." Mercedes said. "Don't put my grandmother and a curse word in the same sentence."

Sam scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry. I just _really_ love your grandma. Alot."

Mercedes laughed. "You're not the only one." She interlocked their fingers. "So?"

"I'm supposed to be home, Mercy."

"Just stay long enough to see my grandmother." Mercedes pleaded. That's it. You don't even have to stay for dinner. My mom can give you some food to take home."

Sam stared into Mercedes' eyes. "Fine. Let me call my mom and make sure it's okay."

"Great. I'm going to go downstairs and set the table. Just come down when you get off of the phone." Mercedes kissed Sam on the cheek and walked out of her room, where she saw Ada waiting on her.

"So, I'm guessing you and Sam worked out whatever problems you had." She smirked.

"Not really, no." Mercedes rolled her eyes. "And you didn't see what you think you saw."

"I mean, you're not an adult or anything, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I understand. I just wish you wouldn't have done it with our grandmother on the way."

"I swear, if you tell anyone what you saw-"

Ada reached the bottom of the stairs first. "Calm down." She got close to Mercedes and whispered in her ear. "Your sex secret's safe with me." She chuckled as she walked off.

"It's _not_ a-" Mercedes almost shouted before realizing what she was saying. She huffed and went to set the table.

When Mercedes got downstairs, she saw Jeremy in the kitchen. She went over and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey, bro."

"Hey." He side hugged her. "Is Sam here?"

Mercedes nodded. "He's upstairs. Making sure it's okay with his mom if he stays over-"

"You know who I haven't seen in a while?" Jeremy interrupted. "Santana. She hasn't been over since that night that the new girl in glee club came over. Larissa was her name. Haven't seen Santana since that night. You should've asked her to come over."

Mercedes rolled her eyes and walked over to the dining room. "Santana isn't exactly an ally of mine right now. She thinks I've been spending too much time with Sam and not enough with her."

Jay followed his sister to and began helping her. "What do _you_ think?"

"I don't know. I explained the whole situation to her though. With Ada being here and this whole relationship I've got going on with Sam now, I don't have a lot of time. I've tried to- Forks on the left." Mercedes paused.

Jeremy looked down at the table and back up at Mercedes. "What?"

Mercedes walked over to where her brother was. "Forks always go on the left." She rearranged the utensils. "And the salad fork, which is the little fork, is the leftmost one. Same for the spoons. The smallest one is going to be closer to the plate. Go back and fix the rest."

Jay looked at Mercedes like she was crazy. "What the hell, really?"

"Yes." Mercedes said. "And Grandma Edith is coming over tonight so no cursing at the table. It's bad enough that you do it when she's not here." She went back over to where she was before.

Jay narrowed his eyes. "But don't you _also_ do it when she's not here?"

"Now, you'll go back and set the table right. I'll get back to what I was saying. I've tried hanging out with her, but she's busy when I'm not. I've tried inviting her to things when I go out with Sam, she won't do it."

"I don't really blame her. Who'd want to third wheel with you guys?"

"But that's just it! I tell her she can bring Brittany or maybe Quinn. Hell, she could bring a damn stuffed animal if she wants-"

"No cursing at the table."

"Shut up. I swear, it's like no matter what I try doing, she doesn't want to hang out with me anymore."

"But she's still your friend though, right? She's not actually said anything to you about hating you or anything?"

"No, but she doesn't even want to co-captain the cheer squad with me. She texted me yesterday saying that she thought Quinn would make a better fit. I love Quinn and all, but Santana needs to figure this out. If she wants to hang out with me, she's going to have to start making efforts, too. I can't be the only one trying to figure things out." Mercedes ranted.

"Ok, let's talk about something else. I can already see the smoke seeping out of your ears." Jay chuckled.

Mercedes smiled and rolled her eyes. "I'm not that angry, Jay. It's just frustrating, is all. What do you want to talk about now?"

Jeremy walked to all the entrances that were in earshot of the where they were. He went over to Mercedes and spoke softly. "Do you think Mom made enough for an extra person tonight?"

Mercedes giggled. "What, another one of your freeloader friends coming over again?"

"Okay, first of all, they're not freeloaders, they pay their parts for everything, and they're both moving into their own places this weekend." Jay looked around one more time before speaking softly again. "I mean a female extra person." He avoided Mercedes' gaze.

Mercedes' jaw dropped to the floor. "No way." She gave her brother a smile that reached her ears. "Are you fucking kidding me? You've got to be kidding. How long?"

"7 months."

"Holy shit."

Jay rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay. I get it-"

"No, no, this is great, brother." Mercedes laughed. "But, I mean, wow. That was not what I expected." She put her hand on her brother's shoulder. "I guess Mr. Playa's still got some of his game, huh? It's been awhile since you brought a girl around. If I'm honest, I was starting to think you were gay."

"Alright, enough of that." Jay brushed Mercedes' hand off his shoulder. "I'll just tell her not to come." He pulled his phone out.

"Wait, Jay." Mercedes grinned and took his phone out of his hands, placing it in the table beside them. "Let her come." She said sincerely. "You might want to give Mom a heads-up, though. She may or may not be a little tense from a conversation I may or may not have had with her a couple hours ago."

"Jesus, Mercedes. Really?"

"In my defense, had I known you were bringing a girl home, I might've tried to butter her up a bit. This is your fault for springing this shit on me out of nowhere."

"Whatever." Jeremy picked up his phone. "I'm gonna go talk to Mom." He left the room.

As if on cue, Sam entered the dining room, placing his hands over Mercedes' eyes and smiling. "Guess who's staying for dinner." He said.

Mercedes snickered as she turned around. "So, she said yes?"

"She did." Sam nodded. "She just made me promise to bring her some."

"She might not be getting any tonight. Turns out, we have an extra guest coming." Mercedes traced circles on Sam's chest.

"Who is this extra guest?"

Mercedes thought for a moment. "I actually don't know her name." She laughed. "But my brother's bringing a girl home."

Sam's eyes widened a little and grabbed Mercedes hands. "Seriously?"

Mercedes nodded.

"You're kidding."

"I know, right? But no."

"How long?"

"7 months."

"Holy shit."

Mercedes snorted. "I know, right?"

"So all that time that we thought he was gay?"

"We were totally wrong." Mercedes was breathless from laughing.

"That's probably the craziest thing I've heard all day." Sam smiled and watched Mercedes laugh. He put his hands on her waist.

Mercedes got ahold of herself and looked up at her boyfriend. "It is, most certainly, very crazy." She said.

There was a moment of silence between the couple. They just stood in one another's arms, gazing into the other person's eyes. Sam was the first to speak up.

"You're so beautiful."

Mercedes felt her heart swelling and her cheeks burning as she put her face into his chest and beamed. When she felt Sam hug her, she hugged him back.

Sam lifter Mercedes head up and placed a kiss on her lips before putting his head atop of hers. "I love you."

Mercedes couldn't say anything. She was smiling too hard. But she knew that Sam knew that she loved him too.

They stayed like that for what seemed like forever. It was really only about 10 seconds, though. Because they heard footsteps— or, paw steps— coming closer and closer to them. Before long, They felt Prince jumping up to join the cuddlefest.

Mercedes cackled upon realizing the dog was there. She broke away from Sam and bent over to rub him. She took Sam's hand, "Come on. Let's go sit."

Mercedes finally got her nap after laying across Sam on the sectional. A knock at the door woke her up. She pushed herself off of Sam and rushed to the door. She opened it and smiled, expecting her grandma. The person at the door wasn't her grandma. Mercedes didn't know who it was. Who was it?"

"Grace." Jeremy walked to the door. "Hey."

"Hey," Grace smiled brightly. "Am I too early? I know you said dinner didn't start until about 7, but I thought I would… at least, come and meet some of your family." She glanced at Mercedes. "Is this one of your sisters?"

"Yeah, yeah." Jeremy looked over to Mercedes. "Mercedes, this is Grace, my girlfriend. Grace, this is Mercedes."

"Ahh, Mercedes." Grace said smoothly. "The smartest out of the sisters, loves to sing, and hates bananas with a passion." She shook Mercedes' hand. "Jay's told me a lot about you."

Mercedes gave the girl in front of her a cheeky smile. "I wish I could say the same, Grace."

"By the way, my name is Maya-Grace. So, if you'd like to call me Maya, or Grace, or Maya-Grace," Maya chuckled. I'm fine with that."

"Well, Maya, Grace, Maya-Grace." Mercedes smiled. "I have to say, before you got here I didn't even know your name." Mercedes said more to her brother than to Maya.

Jeremy shrugged. "Sorry 'bout that." He looked over at Sam and signal for him to come where they were. "Grace, this is Sam, a family friend."

"Family friend, long-time best friend of Mercedes, and short-time boyfriend of Mercedes." Maya shook Sam's hand.

"Why do I feel like you've told her everything about us, dude?" Sam whispered to Jeremy.

"Alright. Grace, why don't you come in, and I'll get everybody else down here." Jay brought Maya into the house, closing the door behind her.

Mercedes went over to Jay and whispered in his ear. "Don't leave her by herself, dufus. I'll go get everyone."

After getting her little sisters to go downstairs, Mercedes went to Ada's room and plopped down on her bed, grinning. "You would not believe who's downstairs in our living room."

Ada turned over in her covers. "If it's not our grandmother, why are you on my bed right now?"

"Oh, come on, Ada." Mercedes nudged her sister. "It's not Grandma Edith. It's even better." She patted Ada's leg and got off the bed. "Get up. I'll be waiting outside the door."

When Ada got out of her room, she stood next to Mercedes. "What is it?"

"More like 'who' is it. And 'who' it is is Maya-Grace. Check this out." Mercedes brought Ada to the top of the staircase and pointed at the girl in the living room.

Ada gasped. "Holy crap. She's gorgeous."

"Right?" Mercedes beamed.

"Ok, I know who she is. Why is she here?"

Mercedes giggled as she saw Jeremy walking towards Maya and hit Ada's side gently. "Watch this."

Ada watched as Jay put his hand on the small of Maya's back and kissed her on the cheek. She gasped again. "No way." She whispered. "No fucking way."

Mercedes gave her sister a look. "What's with you and the swearing?"

"I have no idea. Chalk it up to the growing fetus in my body. What in the hell am I looking at?"

"Oh, I think you know what you're looking at."

Ada went back up to the top of the stairs so that she could speak louder. "How did that even happen? And for how long has it been happening?"

Mercedes shrugged. "I don't know anything about how it got started. All Jay told me was that they've been together for 7 months now."

"7 months?" Ada's eyes widened. "How did he keep it a secret for this long?"

"Beats me." Mercedes said. "Come on, let's go ahead and get down there." She jogged down the stairs, followed by Ada.

Once Ada and Maya had been introduced, all of the Jones family who were present sat in the living room, chatting and getting to know Maya-Grace. After some time, there was a sound of a car door being shut in the yard. Mercedes jumped up, clapping and smiling. "Finally, Grandma's here." She went to the door and waited for her grandmother to knock. Mercedes opened the door with a smile on her face, but that smile quickly turned into a look of utter shock. "Oh, no."

Ada went over to the door. "Well, don't keep Grandma to yourself, Mercedes. I'm the one that's hardly seen her in the year I've been go-" Upon seeing who was at the door, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Nathan?"


	14. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Alright, here we are. Nathan (Ada's ex/babyfather) is on the Jones' doorstep. The scene is set!

Apologizing for typos because I know they're there lmao.

* * *

"Did you just say Nathan?" Diane smiled as she rushed to the door. "Well, look at that. Come here, boy, give me a hug." She extended her arms and hugged him tightly.

"Mama D. So nice to see you again." Nathan smiled back.

"I swear, I thought it was going to be a whole millennium before I saw you again. Come in, come in!" She moved to the side to let him in."You can go and get freshened up. We're having dinner in a few."

"But Mom," Ada spoke up, "I thought you barely made enough for everyone else tonight. Do we really want to add another entire stomach to that?"

"We might have to spread out a little thin but we can manage I'm sure."

"Are you sure though? We'd have to spread it _really_ thin. You know Nathan just doesn't know when to stop." Ada laughed a little too hard.

"Good news is I don't even need to eat. Stopped and got something on the way. I am 100% satiated." Nathan said cooly.

Ada fought the urge to roll her eyes.

At the table, Sam sat beside Mercedes. "This is some serious daytime "Young and the Restless" soap opera shit, right?" He chuckled.

"You _can't _be joking about this right now." Mercedes frowned and turned her head to look at Sam. "You're not seriously making light of my sister's estranged ex-fiance and father of her secret child showing up at our door unannounced. You're not doing that are you?"

Sam briefly opened his mouth before closing it. "No. No I'm not."

Mercedes smiled contently "Didn't think so."

"I'll go pull up a chair for you." Diane left the doorway, leaving the couple to themselves.

Ada was visibly seething. "What in the hell are you doing here?" She mumbled lowly.

"Ada I—"

Mercedes rushed over to them and stopped Nathan mid-sentence. "Nathan, this isn't a good time. Are you sure you can't just come back?"

"No, Mercedes. I can't. Nice to see you again, by the way. I've missed you too."

"Yeah, ditto." She said quickly. She looked at Ada, "Come on."

Ada followed her sister to a guest room down the hall. Mercedes closed the door softly and faced it. She trained her eyes on the floor. "Are you okay?"

"Why is he here?" Ada's voice shook with anger.

"I know just as much as you do. Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay. My blood is boiling. Who does he think he is? Showing up here like this without so much as a call or text to ANYONE? I'm more than not okay. I'm outraged. I'm irate. I-I'm splenetic!"

Mercedes bit back a chuckle, "Ok, Mrs. Thesaurus." She turned around and stepped toward her sister. "Look," She took out her phone. "I'm giving you thirty seconds. You have thirty seconds to tantrum and throw things and get out whatever frustrations you can get out in that thirty seconds. After that, we shut this shit down, go back out there, sit down at that table, and push through. Got it?"

Ada nodded, breathing heavily with the anticipation of the freak out.

"Alright. Thirty seconds." Mercedes went back over to the door. She paused before looking back with her head, "Just… don't do anything that will draw too much attention or hurt yourself or the kid." She said knowingly. "Thirty seconds…" She set the timer on her phone. "Go."

Mercedes braced herself for whatever was about to happen in the next half-minute, but the silence in the room was palpable. Before long, Ada spoke up. "I'm done.." She said flatly.

Mercedes frowned as she turned around, "No you had 30 seconds, you only used 10 of them."

"No, I can't do this. Not right now." She said as if it were obvious. "We both know that if I start now, I won't be able to stop in thirty seconds, ok? So, just let me breathe and I'll be done."

"Ada." Mercedes walked over to her. "Are you sure? Are you sure you're sure?"

Ada nodded as she huffed. "Yeah. I'll be fine. I'll make it through."

Mercedes looked deeply into her sister's eyes. She took her hands in hers and gave them a firm squeeze. Ada looked and squeezed back. "I've got your six, okay? Whatever you need."

"Thanks. For everything." Ada tried to convey her message to her sister.

Mercedes nodded. "Noe, let's go to what is about to be possibly the most awkward Jones Family Dinner in the history of Jones Family Dinners." She chuckled.

Ada smiled, "And you know _that's_ saying something."

The sisters went back to the dining room and sat beside their boyfriends (or their estranged ex-fiance slash secret baby daddy). Shortly thereafter, Mercedes' grandmother Edith arrived and the dinner commenced. Edith's arrival lightened the mood some, but the tension in the room was tangible. The sound of clinking cutlery and dishes filled the air, broken only by small talk about Lima's recent events and compliments to the chef.

Just when Mercedes and Ada thought they had made it to the home stretch of the dinner and the torture would soon be over, Diane decided to speak up. "What's going on here?"

All of the kids feigned confusion with vague mumbles denying that something was going on.

"Oh, no. Don't act all dumbfounded. This room is so thick with tension it feels like I'm in a tropical rainforest." Diane waited for someone to say something, but all her family looked at her with the same glass-eyed expression. She took a sip of her drink and nodded. "I know what and who this is about."

The kids went back to mumbling and asking who it was about.

"You two." She waved her finger at Ada and Nathan. "Something happened and you don't want him here. The rest of you are just as eager to avoid him as she is. You've been shooting him dirty looks since he showed up here."

There was a simultaneous burst of "Psshh, please." and "what? No way?"

Diane interrupted, "What happened between y'all, hmm? We know I can do this all night."

Ada cursed Nathan for showing up. She knew her mom was right. She is a lawyer, after all. Scaring people into telling her what she wants to hear is kind of her thing.

Nathan started talking, "Mama D, I—"

"Nathan and I broke up." Ada blurted. "He didn't want me to be gone for our last semesters of school and I dumped him because I told him that I couldn't do the long-distance thing if he wasn't going to commit to it."

"Yeah, that's it." Nathan nodded.

Diane frowned, "So, what's brought you here?"

"Question of the night." Sam mumbled before Mercedes kicked him under the table.

"Well, we talked, and—"

"And I told her that I was committed." Nathan blurted in the same way Ada did. "I told her that I didn't care what the circumstances were. It didn't matter to me where we were, how often we could see each other," He paused and looked at Ada. "Who else may have been in the picture. I said that I was ready for it and that I was wholeheartedly invested in making it work."

"And I told him he should join us for dinner!" Ada enthused.

"Hmm." Diane pursed her lips— she was thinking. "That explains you two. Why does everyone else seem to hate you? And why did you not tell me he was coming to dinner tonight?" She asked the couple.

Ada answered both questions, "We never actually agreed on a date for him to come. He just decided to surprise me!" She smiled too wide. "He just loves surprises." She looked at Nathan passive aggressively. "And I told everyone about the break up except for you and Dad and neglected to tell them that we sort of made up. So they didn't know," She tried to look at Mercedes for help. "That he was back on my good side."

Mercedes nodded affirmatively. "Yeah, no, we didn't know they made up until now. So when he showed up we were shooting him daggers." She chuckled awkwardly. "But we're all good now."

"Wow. Quite a story there. But I'm glad that you two were able to work it out. Let's celebrate. I've got a bottle of this _amazing_ 1985 Spanish red, you've just got to try it. I got it on our trip to Napa last year. _1985_. Nate, you're going to love this. I was waiting to try it until we were together again. Looks like tonight is the night." Diane laughed as she rose from her spot at the table.

"Actually," Ada stuttered.

"We're not drinking. We've taken a vow of abstinence… from alcohol." Nathan covered for her.

Diane smiled confusedly, "What? A sobriety vow? From my fellow wine connoisseur?" She pretended to be offended. "At least have a sip." She paused. "1985. Rioja Alta. " She almost pleaded.

Nathan chuckled. "Sorry. I'm committed in more ways than one." He looked at Ada, "Many more."

"You can just give our glasses to Sam and Mercedes. Celebrate their relationship." Ada offered.

Diane smiled, "How sweet." She turned to Sam and Mercedes and her smile faded into a raised brow, "Y'all know y'all aren't getting any of my 1985, right?"

"Yeah, I was gonna skip out on that, given that my dad's a low-life alcoholic and all." Sam laughed.

Mercedes sensed something behind that laugh but decided to ignore it for the time being. "Yeah we were both going to pass on that. Why don't you save it for their graduation this spring?"

"Great idea. I'll just go open up a younger bottle for me and Mom. How's that sound, Ma?" Diane looked to her mother.

Edith shook her head. "I don't want anything worth more than $50. Did you spend more than $50 on your _1985_?" She mocked her daughter.

Diane tilted her head, "I did, yes."

"Then I. Don't. Want it." Edith said defiantly. "Spending hundreds of dollars on some wine. Makes no damn sense if you ask me. Get me something under $50."

Diane rolled her eyes and laughed. "Got it, Ma. Cheapest thing I've got, coming right up."

Dinner ended once Edith and Diane had their wine and upon their volunteering, Mercedes and Jay began cleaning the table.

Mercedes waited until everyone else was out of earshot of the dining room to get down to business. "So, what do we do?"

"We don't do anything." Jay shrugged as he collected the plates to take to the kitchen. "They wanna sit at the table at lie to Mom and everyone else? They sat there, ate their food, and made the decision to fabricate this grand story that conveniently left out their unborn child? What do we do?" He asked as if it was absurd. "We don't do anything." He sat the plates down and dusted his hands, "It's no longer any of my concern. I'm washing my hands of it."

Mercedes huffed as she went behind her brother collecting the silverware. "She's our sister. We have to do something—"

"We don't have to do anything, Mercedes. We have no obligation to help her lie to our parents or anyone else. Before tonight, when she was trying to keep a secret by not saying anything or vaguely avoiding the situation, we absolutely should've been the primary ones looking out for her and helping her. But once she decided to throw our entire plan under a bus—"

"We were allowed to throw her under that same bus?" Mercedes interrupted.

"Nobody's throwing her under anything." Jay tsked as he loaded up the dishwasher.

"But we're leaving her to fend for herself. We're throwing her to the wolves. We can't do that. Sister or not, she's someone who needs help."

Jay finished loading the dishwasher and turned it on. Mercedes stood at the island waiting for him to say something. He stood across from her. "You help her if you want, Merce. But I don't owe her anything after what she just pulled in there. I'm only "my sister's keeper" to a certain point, and this is past that."

"So you're just not going to do anything. Even if she tells us she needs our help. If she begs for it?" Mercedes crossed her arms. "Jay, we cannot just leave her to fend for herself. Even if she did some weird shit. You know how she gets."

"I know exactly how she gets. But Mercedes, I can't conform to every single thing she needs me to do. Every single _lie_ she needs me to tell." Jay started out the kitchen and stopped beside Mercedes, whispering beside her shoulder. "Pregnant or not. Baby or no baby. I'm not willing to continuously concoct these lies to tell our parents. That's not how I roll. And I know that you and Ada are just starting to get back to your whole sister act thing, but it shouldn't be how you roll either. I'm done defending her until she's ready to come clean."

With that, Jay left the kitchen and Mercedes grunted and put her face in her hands. She started rubbing her temples in an attempt to relax and figure out what to do. Of course she had to help her sister. But it wasn't because of the state of their relationship or the fact that there was a baby involved. She was the only person who was truly and completely on Ada's side. She had to help her right? What would happen if she didn't?

A voice interrupted her thoughts, "Merce."

Mercedes stopped rubbing her temples but kept her face in her hands and looked at the person. It was Nathan, but she didn't know what to say or do. So she did nothing, hoping it would prompt him to say something that would make it all make sense.

"How about those Yankees?" He chuckled.

Nope. Mercedes rolled her eyes, "Come with me." She led Nathan to the room she and Ada were in earlier. When they were both in the room, she closed the door and stood against it, "I want to give you another chance to not say something stupid. So far, you're not doing so great."

"I uh… I'm glad you and Sam are together. Finally, right?"

"O for 2, Nathan. Watch yourself."

After a pause, Nathan spoke softly, "I'm not here to expose any secrets."

"You better not be." Mercedes sassed. "Why in the hell did you even come here in the first place? And, on top of coming here, you didn't even think to call?"

"Mercedes, if I had called, do you really think Ada would have let me come?"

"Then maybe that should've been a hint that you _shouldn't _have come!" Mercedes hissed.

"Do you know how many hints I've gotten that I shouldn't come? Her leaving the ring I gave her, taking all of her clothes and leaving like a thief in the night, not returning any of my calls, texts, or anything like that? All of those were hints that I shouldn't come here."

Mercedes crossed her arms. "So, why are you here?"

"Yo, what the fuck are you doing here?" Jay appeared in the doorway almost instantly with a bass in his voice.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "God, not you too."

"Hell yeah me too. You show up at this house; our house. Unexpected. _Uninvited_. And demand to speak to my sister and lie to my mom and grandmother? The hell is wrong with you?" Jay furrowed his brows angrily.

"While you adding all that extra bass in your voice I think you ought to remember _your sister_ is carrying my child." Nathan's voice got deeper and he stepped closer to Jay.

"Okay, both of y'all, just wait a minute." Mercedes stepped in before the two men got violent. "Jay, he didn't demand to speak to anybody. But Nate," Mercedes turned to him, "You had no right to just show up here. Ada doesn't want to see you. You want to see your child, you ask for ultrasound pictures. You don't just show up on our doorstep at dinnertime."

Nathan went over to the chair in the corner and sat down. "Do you know how long it's been since she's been gone? 2 and a half months. Not only does that make 2 and a half months that I haven't been around my unborn child, it's also time that I haven't seen the love of my life; which she still is, by the way." He took a breath. " I'm not here to tell your parents about what's going on. I'm not here to force her back to New York with me. I'm not here to ruffle any feathers or anything like that. I'm here to spend the time that I can with my child and the woman I love. And, if you don't like that, I'm sorry. But Ada's not talking to me and it's her way of pushing me away. I'm not letting her do it."

Mercedes never moved from her spot. She stood, looking at Nathan."You're right." She said reluctantly. "Look," She walked over and sat beside Nathan on the couch. "She told me, us," She motioned to her brother with her head. "Everything that happened between you two, and I'll admit, she was wrong. But that doesn't mean that you can just show up here like that. I love you like a brother, Nate. You know that. But this doesn't make any sense. You could've called me. I would've answered and you know that. I would've told you to come one literally any other day than today, but I would've loved to have talked to Ada and convinced her to want to reconcile with you so that she didn't have to play nice or make up any lies. Just let me talk to her and see if we can't figure anything out."

Nathan fell back against the chair and sighed. "She's not going to want to 'reconcile' with me."

"You don't know that." Mercedes said. "She misses you. Sometimes, we sit up at night and we both talk about our relationships. Mine with Sam. Hers with you. She doesn't consider you guys to be broken up for good. She talks about the way she wishes things could be. If I talk to her enough, maybe I can convince her to talk about what her wishes are with you." She rubbed Nate's shoulder. "I'll be back." Mercedes got up and went to find her sister. Before she reached the door, she motioned between the two guys, "Can y'all not try to kill one another while I'm gone? Thanks."

Mercedes went looking for her sister, but found her talking to her mom about the latest episode of some new soap opera they had been getting into. She decided to wait in her room and talk to Ada later.

At the top of the stairs, Sam bumped into his girlfriend, knocking her over. Mercedes almost fell back on one of the stairs, but he caught her in his arms. "Woah. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good." She stood back up on her feet. "Thanks. That could've been a disaster." She chuckled.

"More of a disaster than that dinner we just sat at?" Sam raised his brow.

Mercedes laughed aloud at that. "That _was_ a horrible dinner, wasn't it?" She shook her head and started walking towards her room.

"Epic fail." Sam laughed with her.

They sat on Mercedes' bed with Sam sitting up against the headboard with his legs stretched out and Mercedes sitting criss-crossed beside him.

"So," Sam said slowly as he took Mercedes' hands and played with them. " I've got something to tell you. I've been doing a lot of thinking."

"Oh, no." Mercedes joked.

Sam didn't smile back. "This isn't really funny, Merce."

Mercedes frowned. "What's wrong?" She waited for an answer but to no avail. "Please tell me no one is dying or moving or pregnant or—"

"No, no. It's no crazy horrible bomb or anything." Sam shook his head. "Far from it, actually. It's kind of a good thing depending on how you look at it."

"Well, tell me how you're looking at it, babe. Because you look nervous to tell me." Mercedes rubbed the back of Sam's hands with her thumbs, "Go ahead, it's okay."

Sam took a deep breath. "I'm thinking about quitting the football team."

Mercedes stopped rubbing his hands, "You what now?"

"I just think it will be better, you know? I mean, if I quit the team, it'll allow more time in my schedule to find a good job and help my mom out." Sam tried to sound optimistic.

But it didn't go for Mercedes, "Are you saying that because that's what you want? Or are you saying that because it's what you think you should do?"

"I don't know. I mean, of course it's what I should do. But I should feel happy to do it, right?" He looked down at their hands, "To help my mom out?"

Mercedes frowned, "Not if you have to give up the thing you've loved most since you were a kid. Sam, look at me." She lifted his chin up so that their eyes met. "How far are you guys from playoffs? Like, one game? All the training you've been doing? You're just gonna let all that hard work go out the window?"

"My mom needs help, Mercedes. She raised me to be a responsible and dependable man. Is this not what that is? Forgetting about the things you want when the going gets tough because you know it's up to you to step up?"

Mercedes turned so that she could lean into him and squeeze his shoulder. The couple sat silent for a moment. She couldn't blame him. He was right and they both knew it, but she just didn't feel right about him quitting. "I'm hearing what you're saying Sam. And I understand you and where you're coming from. But I don't see how this is going to help you in any other way than bringing in money. Football is your dream. Always has been. And it's your release. It's like me with singing. You need it to feel sane—"

"No, you're my dream, Mercedes." Sam said abruptly. "You're what I need to feel sane. You're the thing I wake up for every morning. It's you." Sam moved to sit across from Mercedes on the bed. "It's all you. I don't need football as long as I have you." He cupped her face in his hands. "Mercy." He pleaded with that one word.

Mercedes reached up and removed Sam's hands from her face, holding them tightly. She didn't agree with that, but she knew this wasn't about her. "I'm so sorry, Sam. This isn't fair to you." She stared at him, warm brown eyes fixated on piercing green ones. "None of this is fair." She resisted the urge to cry. "I want you to do what you think is best. I don't want you to give up football. I know how much you love it and want it. But whatever you do, I'm going to support you. I've got your back. Whatever happens."

Sam kissed her hands. "Thank you. You have no idea how much it means to know I have you in my corner, babe." He kissed her.

Mercedes put her arms around Sam's neck and hugged him. "Just promise me you'll give it a little more thought before you make any big decisions, okay?"

"Of course, yeah. It'll be a couple of weeks out, anyways. I gave Coach a heads up just in case she can find someone should we need them if we make it to playoffs."

"Well, of course you're going to make it to playoffs. My star QB is going to make sure of that." She smiled softly as she straddled his lap. She placed her hands behind his head and drew him in. "You've got my support, Baby. I know how good you are and how much you love football, but you should be able to support your family if you need to." She kissed his lips softly.

He kissed her back, moving his hands from her thighs to her waist. "I love you." He said.

"I love _you_." She smiled brightly. "Sam, this is an amazing thing you're willing to do. Seriously."

He smiled and kissed her again. "Not as amazing as what Nathan and Ada just pulled off at that dinner table." He chuckled.

Mercedes laughed aloud at that, "Oh, my god. That was so insane!" she rolled over to lay down beside Sam.

"I mean, I knew NYU was a good school, but jeez. Oscar-worthy performance." Sam slid down so that he could lay facing Mercedes.

Mercedes snuggled up next to him and sighed. "They completely lied to my mom, though. And now we've got to figure out how to move forward. Well, I do anyways. Jay says he's done with it, but I can't just leave her stranded like that."

Sam kissed his girlfriend on the forehead. "I'm going to stay out of this one, Merce. Sorry."

"Oh, don't tell me you're siding with my brother." Mercedes rolled her eyes.

"I'm not siding with anyone. I just think that there's more than a few good points from both sides. I mean, she _is_ your sister and you _should_ help her. And she obviously is going to be needing some more help."

"Exactly!" Mercedes said, satisfied.

"But, at the same time," Sam winced. "She clearly never ran any of that by you _and_ she asked you to help her lie on the spot. She doesn't exactly _deserve_ your help at all."

"Are you serious?" Mercedes sat up. "She's my sister, Sam. If I can't help her now—"

"I'm staying out of it. It's not my baby, so I'm not obligated to do anything. You aren't either, but if you want to, then that's great. I think you should."

She looked down at him, frowning, "So you think I'm right?"

Sam's mouth warped and shifted as he searched for the right words to say, "I thi—"

"You said you think I should help her. So you're not siding with Jay, you're siding with me. Right?"

Sam tucked his lips in and huffed. "Have I told you how beautiful you look lately? Drop dead gorgeous." He smiled slyly and put his hand on her thigh.

"Stop trying to change the subject." Mercedes smiled back a little as she picked up his hand and put it back in its previous position on his stomach.

"No, _you_ stop trying to change the subject and get down here so I can get my mac on." He tried pulling her to him with her shirt.

It would've worked if Mercedes hadn't burst into laughter, "Oh, my god. Don't ever say that again."

"What?" Sam grinned. "I can get my mac on. I likes to get my mac on." He rolled his neck and raised his brows..

Mercedes shook her head. "You can't say that, Sam. I forbid you."

"But you say it all the time. Why can't I?"

"Ok, but… I'm not a total nerd." She teased him.

"Oh, no way." Sam shot up at that. "You are the biggest nerd I know."

Mercedes frowned through her smile. "Boy, where in the hell did you get that information from?"

He spaced out for a second, "I'm not totally sure if I'm being honest. But you're not exactly the Queen of the Anti-Nerds yourself."

"Maybe not, but I don't have an entire corner of my room dedicated to my favorite comic book characters." She smirked. "Which means I can say it. You talking about 'getting your mac on' is like my grandma talking about how 'snatched' she looked for her class reunion. It's strange and a serious conversation has to be had to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Oh, come on." Sam chuckled.

"And it _really_ turns me off, by the way." She went to her previous spot, straddling him.

"Oh, well, we don't want that, now do we?" Sam laid his hands on her waist.

"We sure don't" She pushed him back gently so that he was laying down and kissed him on the lips.

Sam leaned up slightly to whisper into his girlfriend's ear, "The last thing I'd ever want to do is turn you off."

Mercedes felt chills rolling down her spine with his breath on her neck. She brought his face to hers with her hands and the couple started making out.

As things started heating up, Sam went to take off Mercedes' shirt. At this she shook her head and voiced her disapproval. "No."

"Why not?" Sam kept trying to get her clothes off.

"Well, for starters, my entire family is in this house."

"They're all probably downstairs. They won't hear us." He kissed her again.

"Okay, but also," Mercedes sat up and pressed Sam down onto the bed by his wrists so he couldn't reach her, "We talked about this. I told you we should wait. You said you could wait. 'Self control' and all?" She got off of him and went to sit at her vanity.

"I know I said I could wait but jeez. Mercedes you don't know what you do to me." Sam groaned before sitting up at the foot of the bed.

"And you don't know what you do to me. You're the one who's not shy about their rock hard abs. I don't have those."

"Maybe not," Sam said. "But you do have curves for days. All the guys watch you when you're walking in the hallway or the cafeteria or literally anywhere you go. And I'm not Puck and I haven't thrown any dudes in the dumpster yet, but I'm not afraid to start with any guy who looks at you the wrong way."

"Boy, shut up." Mercedes chuckled. "You ain't throwing nobody nowhere."

Sam kept going, "Remember Bryan Maks from my math class? He'll probably be the first one. He's always looked at you too weird for my liking."

"Well, we're officially together, so that shouldn't be a problem." She sat beside him, "Everyone knows now that I am yours," She kissed him. "And you are mine." She kissed him again.

"Okay, if we don't get to the whole sex thing sometime soon, I'm going to put out a public service announcement saying that you can't kiss me." Sam said quickly.

Mercedes rolled her eyes and smiled widely. "Again with this, Sam?"

"Mercedes. I don't think you understand. We've been together for what, 2 months now? That's at least 2 months I've gone without sex, not counting the time that I wasn't with anyone and therefore, wasn't sleeping with anyone."

"Oh, no. That must be so hard for you." Mercedes criss-crossed her legs, propped her elbows on her knees, and propped her chin up on her hands, "Tell me more."

"I'm serious, Mercedes."

"No, I completely believe you. Tell me how your fragile pubescent hormonal boyhood has had to suffer over the past 60 or so days. It sounds just awful." She feigned pity for him.

"Haha, very funny." Sam snarled. "You're a girl. You have it easy. You wouldn't understand. Do you even want to do it with me? Be honest."

"Okay." Mercedes cocked her head to the side and put her hands out in front of her, "First of all, I'm going to forget that you even said that second part so that we don't have to unpack how _incredibly_ sexist it was. Second of all," She paused. "We. Already. Talked. About. This."

"I know."

"And I already explained my reasoning behind it."

"I know."

"And you agreed for the very same reasons that we should wait! Or, as you said, 'hold down the seuxal appetite fort'."

"I know. I just…" Sam huffed. "Are we going to do it before we start growing grey hair?" He only half-joked.

Mercedes laughed, "Of course we are, Sam. We just agreed on this a few hours ago. How are you trying to renege do quick?"

"It's not that I'm not down for the wait. It's just that we're talking months of pent up sexual frustration here, Merce. Are you sure you want to do it?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Mercedes laughed.

"Are you? I know what I said about waiting but—"

"Okay, Sam. Face me." Mercedes motioned for him to do so.

Sam turned his head to look at her, giving her an expectant look.

She slapped his knee and laughed, "Turn and sit to face me, fool." Mercedes laughed. "Come on." When he finally did as asked, she took his hands in hers and looked at them as she talked. "I know what I said about our heads being clear and all that, and I stand by that."

"But if we wait for things to be perfect, nothing's ever going to happen."

"I'm not waiting for _anything_ to be perfect." Mercedes looked up at him then back at their hands. "I just don't want us to be distracted by every. Single. Thing. That's going on around us, which we are right now. But maybe that's not the only reason that I'm hesitating." She looked up at him again.

"Okay. What may the other reason be?"

Mercedes pursed her lips and blew through them, trying to figure out how to say what she wanted to say. "It's just that this is us, Sam. This is you. And this is me. It's us."

Sam frowned. "Wait, is this about the whole 'rock hard abs' thing? Because if it is, Mercedes you have nothing to worry about. You're the most beautiful girl in the world. You're the sexiest, too. You're—"

"No, Sam. It's not that." Mercedes shook her head. "I mean, thank you," She smiled and blushed. "But this isn't about what we look like. It's about what we have. Y'know? Us?" She looked at him expectantly, but could tell she wasn't getting through to him. "Okay. How long have we known each other? 13 years? How long have we been best friends? 12 and a half?" They both grinned. "That's 12-13 years of experiences and memories. 12-13 years that have by and large made us who we are. Not just individually, but as a pair."

"I hear all of that, but I'm not sure what it has to do with us."

"Sam, this is a big step. And once we take this step, there's no turning back. I mean, we've already taken certain steps because we've like, kissed and stuff. But even those steps you can come back from. This isn't one of those. And you know how I feel about sex," She said knowingly.

Sam finished for her, "An exchange of energy. I know. You've only mentioned it to me 20,000 times in the last 200 days."

Mercedes giggled. She and Santana start watching self-care videos for women and that one in particular caught her eye. It's the main reason she never slept with Shane. She didn't feel comfortable after that video. "Exactly."

"But, you don't think we've exchanged energies before?" Sam thought of the times they'd hugged or made up after a fight or shared a milkshake. Now that he thought about it, he realized he didn't really know what "exchanging energies" meant.

"Of course, we have. But not in a way that required us to take our clothes off." Mercedes said as if it were obvious. "And not in a way that's so intimate and…" She searched for the right word, "vulnerable."

"But I thought you've always said one of the things you love most about me is how vulnerable I allow myself to be—"

"Yes, Sam. I said that." Mercedes smiled even though she was a tad bit frustrated at him for having an answer or a 'but' to everything. "And I still mean it. But that doesn't change the fact that this is a _big_ thing for us. For any couple, really, but extra big for us. And when we take that step— which, I absolutely want to take, by the way. I mean, I don't think about it too much anymore, but if anyone were to ask me right now about my idea of a perfect date I know it would just be us doing that." She laughed and cursed herself for rambling. "When we take that step," She got back on track, "I want it to be special and beautiful. And everything that we hope for it to be."

"So what's the hold up then?" Sam asked. "Look, Merce, everything you're saying is great. And I'm hearing and receiving it and all that jazz, but I'm not hearing or receiving anything that we can change before we do it. Of course there are things we're nervous about. But sometimes, the only way to get rid of those nerves is to just… do the thing you're nervous about."

"I know that, baby, I do. But that's not all for me." Mercedes stopped talking, expecting (half-expecting, half-hoping) Sam would interrupt her again. He didn't. "I guess to round it all out, my thing is this: Our experiences and memories won't be the same once we do this. And I guess that I don't want to lose this version of us just because our hormones are telling us to. I guess I just want to stay like this for as long as we can. The innocent version of us that's untainted by weird romantic stuff. I also guess that with everything that's going on, we're both too distracted to savor that while we still have it."

Sam looked at her with a slight smirk, "Are we done with the guessing now?"

Mercedes nodded. "Yeah, I guess." She winced and grinned, "Sorry. Didn't mean to do that."

Sam laughed at her nervousness. "Look, I'm not gonna lie to you. That's a LOT of stuff you've got in those guesses. But none of that has to matter. Sure, there's a version of us, similar to this one, that's filled with all the great memories and experiences, that exists. But didn't we decide to try out this relationship thing because we wanted more than that? We didn't want all the innocence, right? We wanted the weird romantic stuff. We wanted _new_ memories and experiences with each other. And," Sam drew out the word, "it's not like this "point of no return" means we lose who we used to be forever. We still have the memories and things. We just made a decision along the way to make new ones. Better ones, if you ask me. Ones that don't involve us hiding our feelings for one another. Annnnd," He drew the word out again.

"Okay, I'm loving this whole soap box moment but I'm going to need you to stop saying that like that."

"Annd," He repeated as he smiled at her. "I don't know about you, but I can assure you that _I'm_ not distracted."

"Sam, you're the king of being distracted."

"No, I'm not. Not when it comes to you." Sam said confidently. "When something's about you, it has my undivided attention. Now, I'll admit, with everything with my dad going on, I've been slightly preoccupied in general. But Merce, every time we're together, you somehow seem to make it fall away. And my entire world becomes about you."

"Well, that's sweet, babe, but it sounds unhealthy. I'm your distractions from all your problems? That doesn't sit right."

"You're not my distraction, Mercedes." Sam let go of her hands and gently grabbed her shoulders. "You're my comfort. You're my relief. Whenever I'm with you, my problems don't magically melt away because I have you to occupy myself with. But they seem less crazy and, well, problematic because I find my relief in you. And when I'm with you, I'm able to just be without having to worry about everything that's going on. So I'm not distracted. Especially not with you. And I'm ready to take this step and be vulnerable and make these new memories. I'm ready. And I _want_ this."

Mercedes cheesed. Sam's words could always make her heart swell. The lump in her throat would always appear anytime he said something sweet. She took his hands off her shoulders and held them again. "You're my comfort and relief too." She said softly. "And you ease my pain and ditto to every single thing you just said." She nodded.

"You can go ahead and cry now." Sam smiled, "I know you want to."

And just like that, the floodgates opened. "I was trying not to." Mercedes sighed with a slight chuckle, already wiping fallen tears from her cheeks. "I love you."

"I love you, too. Come here." Sam extended his arms and Mercedes practically lunged into them. The couple hugged one another tightly. _Kind of like we're exchanging energies_ Sam thought.

Mercedes sniffed as she pulled back from him and stood up, "Look, I'm not making any promises or setting any dates. I'm still not quite ready yet." She stared into his beautiful green eyes. "But I will be. Soon."

Sam smiled widely, "Really?"

Mercedes smiled at his smile and nodded. "Yeah."

Sam pulled her onto the bed with him, laying her legs across his lap. He kissed her, "You say the word whenever you're ready."

Mercedes wrapped her arms around his neck for support, "You've got it."

The couple stared at one another for a moment before Sam said it. "Are you ready now?"

Mercedes laughed aloud, "Of course not, boy. 'Soon' does not mean 2 minutes after."

"I'm just making sure. You can never be too thorough with the questions you ask people these days." Sam cheesed like a child before laying down on the bed and laying one on Mercedes. Then another one, then another. They looked each other in the eyes. _Another exchange?_ Sam thought. "I love you."

"I love you." Mercedes said sweetly.

Sam sighed. "How about now?"

"Oh, my God, get away from me!" Mercedes laughed harder and louder before rolling away from Sam and pushing him off the bed.

* * *

WOAH! So… crazy right? No one in this story can catch a break, y'all. I'm sorry LOL. Do you guys think Nathan and Ada are going to be able to make up and be a big happy family? Or do you think her worries and fears that made her leave New York are going to leave the two worse off than they were when she left?

You'll find out next chapter! Also in the next chapter, pumpkin picking ends up going left real quick; we're finally going to find out more about this Sam and Santana situation honey! It wasn't really mentioned this time around, but it's coming! Let me know what y'all are thinking, how you feel, what you want to see, all of that. See you guys soon!


	15. Update :)

Hey y'all! I know I haven't uploaded in a minute, chile. I wanted to let you guys know that I'm aware of that LMAO! I actually have another story in the works that I plan on posting for y'all and I'm trying to figure out if I want the story to be in the same "universe" or whatnot (like if I should keep this Jones family or change them up a bit or if it should still be set in Lima, for a couple of examples) and was holding off on posting until I made a decision. BUT I think I've made one and the next chapter should be up. Also, look out for my next story soon! The next chapter isn't as long as the others (right now lol). I wanted to go ahead and keep it short(er) and sweet because I don't feel the story has been progressing fast enough. But I know some of y'all like the longer chapters, so I'll make up for it I promise!

Stay safe and STAY HOME

-Dess


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